6 Recent Films That Got Car Sounds Badly Wrong
A few years ago, I had a jolly big rant about films using the wrong sounds for particular cars. I’ve since spoken to a few people who work in the field of audio post production, and predictably the reason is ‘dramatic license’ - in other words filmakers prefer making things sound cool, rather than realistic.
That’s fair enough, especially when the vast majority of the audience isn’t going to give a damn. But as an utterly pedantic petrolhead, I still want to moan when things aren’t quite right, and if you’ll indulge my curmudgeonly nature, here are a few zingers which aggravated me recently:
Sadly, we don’t live in a world where the M3 still has a V8. But in the fantasy land of the movies, this turbo straight-six F80 version is given an extra pair of cylinders it doesn’t have IRL…
Oh, how happy I was when I watched The Last Witch Hunter the other week. Not because it’s a good film (it isn’t), but because the sound of the Aston Martin Rapide S in it is spot-on. It’s not just a V12 as it should be; I’m 99.99 per cent sure the particular V12 sound used even belongs to an Aston engine.
However, all that good work is undone by one scene (we can’t find a clip of the actual gaffe, but the car appears in the above trailer at the 25sec mark) when it sounds remarkably like a V10 Audi R8. So close…
Last time I checked, the Tesla Model S didn’t have an internal combustion engine. But we can’t blame Kit Harrington for not noticing this omission - the Lord Commander does have a lot on right now, after all.
The sight of Indycars in the unforgivably boring Focus should have been a good thing. However, while the Indycars themselves were the real deal, the sounds dubbed over the top seem to be sourced from V10 F1 cars.
Yep, this one’s a bike rather than a car, but it’s worth mentioning since this is something that filmmakers get wrong all the damn time: a Ducati with an inline-four engine. I get why: most people expect superbikes to have screaming four-cylinder engines, but what’s annoying here is in a previous scene, it sounds like a twin just as it should.
The Fast and Furious franchise has a pretty shoddy track record for engine sounds, and the latest installment is no different. V10 Maserati Ghibli, anyone?
Speaking of incorrectly placed V10s and Furious 7, how about this flat-six powered Lykan that sounds a lot like a Lexus LFA?
We could probably make a whole list out of Furious 7’s engine sound gaffes, so let’s just leave it at these two for now.
What other engine sound mess-ups have you seen in films of the last two years?
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Furious 7 Supra engine sounds like a a 4 banger.. :p
Even though cars a bae, if margot robbie is in a film its not boring, focus had me focused…..
I just don’t get it why is there a big fuss about Fast and the Furious, half of those cars are ‘kit’ cars mostly. Even car builders for the series told they build most of their cars and use (chevy i think?)V8’s only to get the power figures to handle the stunt scenes :D
OH maybe an engine swap?