A Mechanical Symphony of Car Sounds

As a kid, I was initially attracted to cars by colors and shapes, I still remember my neighbor’s Smurf-blue MGB—my first love. As I grew I learned to appreciate cars for other reasons: freedom, speed, engineering, the skill involved in driving well. These are the things that nurtured my love throughout childhood, and continue to sustain my passion for all things car as an adult.

Above all these things, though, is the sound. The sound of a throttle bodies honking, cams whirring, gears meshing, internals churning away at over 100 times per second—a labyrinthine network of complex and precisely machined pieces, working in tightly choreographed unison, enriched and amplified through a series of resonant metal tubes and blasted out through the back like Dizzy Gillespie on the horn—pure aural magic.

Here are a select few of our favorites from a back-catalog of more than a 100 years of hits.