Mercedes is preparing to show off a louder Formula 1 V6 turbo engine note during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend.
Early this week, team chief Toto Wolff revealed that one proposed solution to the turbo V6 sound ‘problem’ is a sort of “megaphone” addition to the exhaust.
Along with Ferrari and Renault, Formula 1′s three engine makers have been considering how to spice up the sound of Formula 1 2014, after some spectators and promoters were shocked at the difference compared to the screaming V8s of 2013.
“The solutions range from very complex solutions within the exhaust system down to a simple megaphone at the back,” Wolff is quoted by Kolner Express newspaper.
I fail to understand how a megaphone would increase the sound level of the exhaust. It’s works with the human voice through impedance-matching to vocal cords to the air. I wouldn’t think the impedance of the exhaust is an issue.
I think that a better description would have been ‘modify the exhaust sound’.
A megaphone will do that, but fitting one is a monumental task, unless you have access to the test rigs and funds of Mercedes.
Further…. this opens up another avenue of development for increased power at certain rev ranges.
At 6,000 rpm, for each second, 100 packets of exhaust gas must be moved from the combustion chamber.
Too much pressure build up slows the train down.
With the correct pressure, each packet pulls the next one ‘in its slipstream’.
Megaphone exhausts need to be shaped to create the ideal ‘air movement rhythm, frequency, or vibration’.
The side effect of this ‘tuning’ is sound modification.
It really is ‘tuning’.
This must affect engine performance, therefore we must assume that Mercedes believe that they have found a nice tune 😉
Good points.
Yes, any exhaust system will resonate at a certain rpm / cylinder exhaust cycle count. So it will be loader at that specific rpm, but no others.