Noise Is Now The Only Reason To Cling Onto Internal Combustion

As it emerges that Volkswagen’s terrifyingly fast ID R averaged the equivalent of 17mpg while crushing the Nurburgring lap record, the list of reasons to defend ICE has grown very thin indeed…

Matt Kimberley

Updated: 10 Oct 2024

There’s nothing quite like the organic noise of a wonderful petrol engine. Whether your dish du jour is a woofly twin-turbo V8, a furious N/A V10 or a melodious, soulful V12 – or any one of a dozen different particularly sonorous engine configurations – nothing can replace the sound of your favourite engines under load.

My hand is up; I’m guilty as charged. At CT we do like to make a fuss about that. From the 4.7-litre Maserati V8 in the old GranCabrio to today’s bombastic blown 4.0-litre AMG flagship, I’ve not been shy about placing noise as the one reason why EVs can’t replace petrol-driven sports cars.

In wing-tastic Pikes Peak spec, the ID R smashed the course record

And yet… even to we most die-hard supporters of good ol’ suck-squeeze-bang-blow, the list of arguments in favour of turning liquidised ancient dead things into forward motion is growing bum-troublingly thin.

Earlier this week we reported on how the Volkswagen ID R completed its bonkers 6m 05s lap of the Green Hell at an energy usage equivalent of 17mpg; about the same as what an M3 will give you on a quick blast to and from the shops. The more you think about it, the more amazing it becomes.

For a car as rampantly quick as the ID R to make a circuit of such a fuel-hungry track using so relatively little energy is a brutal uppercut to the jaw of internal combustion. All of a sudden we’re reaching a technological event horizon whereby electric power can give more real-world speed, with better refinement, in a way that’s (on the face of it) much kinder to the planet. Not just that, though: the key buzzword of the 2010s has been efficiency, and in that respect the ID R represents a quantum leap.

Noise Is Now The Only Reason To Cling Onto Internal Combustion

Let’s take a flight of fancy: imagine owning a car that would hit 62mph in around 5.5 seconds, carry you to work in near-silent comfort, be kinder to the planet and achieve a financial equivalent of 100mpg or more. Now realise that the Tesla Model 3 already offers that. Such a combination is going to be prohibitively expensive for most of us for the time being, but when the classifieds start to fill up with BEVs in a few years… well, could you really resist?

No manufacturer has yet come up with a solution to the noise issue; or lack thereof. Formula E still sounds about as exciting as a wholemeal loaf, and to anyone for whom emotive noise is an integral part of the way they enjoy cars, it’s still a gaping hole in the new kids’ arsenals. But prices are creeping down, and now that BEVs can offer so much of everything else, for how long can we realistically clutch at that one remaining straw?

Comments

In the sports car/trackday car market i dont see how EVs will replace ICE cars anytime soon.
EVs lack driver engagement and character, no engine sound, no gears to shift (not even with paddles). Electric Motors have amazing torque at low RPM but have a significant power drop at high RPM. Watch a Model S P100d acceleration run, 0-100 is amazing, everything from 200 looks more like a 400 than a 700 hp car.
Range, flexibility and the whole recharging process are also huge issues. Most people dont have a nice house with a garage where they could charge the car at home, good luck finding a public charger that is compatible with your car as well as not occupied by someone else and wait for 30 min to several hours until you car is fully charged again. Not to mention that quick charging all the time will actually damage your battery in the long run.
If you want the fast chargers, youre going to pay more. Here in Germany (where we have all the renewable energy everyone praises) the average price for electricity is 0,27 euros/KWh, on quick chargers up to 0,50 euros/KWh. With these prices in mind diesel cars are actually cheaper.
Oh, and back to the trackday topic, good luck finding a charger on the Nordschleife or close to any racetrack of your choice.
EVs are good for traffic light competitions (if thats what youre into) or everyday commuting, and even in those cases theyre more expensive than compareable ICE cars.

I’m a staunch supporter of internal combustion…

However, in defense of EVs, I know one of the major reasons there are less racetracks around than there ought to be is because of noise. EVs inherently make less noise, ergo we can expect more circuits and drag strips closer to or perhaps even within major cities supposing the tracks are EV only. Call it a silver lining?

I’m not fully convinced by EVs entirely. There are several factors as to why they still aren’t the answer.

The infrastructure to charge them ASAP and drive them without caring about the range too much is a luxury for the developed 1st world only and just a tiny part of it. In south Asian countries like India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Myanmar, Vietnam where electrical grid infrastructure is non-existent and the electricity supply is still very scarce, EVs just won’t work even in the city limits.
The current policies that governments have implemented are just going to turn the tide back on them. All those subsidies and duty fees that government is implementing on EVs won’t benefit the company at all in the long run. Because these cars don’t have any maintenance due to lack of moving parts, they aren’t going to generating any revenue as much as a traditional ICE car where components require maintenance over time. People will buy cars, pass it down and will very rarely see a dealer service. That is if it’s built like a concrete wall.
We could very well see an automotive equivalent of Apple when they were caught reducing the performance of their phones via software updates so people are forced into thinking that their driving has faded the battery lifespan when in reality, the batteries are fine… it’s just the software update that had caused the batteries to deplete faster… something which was seen recently in Tesla Model 3s latest update. Or even worse still is car makers pulling an EV equivalent of Facebook where they misuse users information and cripple trust of many consumers. These issues will just hurt consumers in the end all because of these deceptive practices.
Because the most economical and practical way of building an EV is to just plant the motors at the wheels and have the batteries put in the floor, it leads to a scene where most cars will look exactly the same with several body types getting mulled because one or two cars are meeting sales expectations for the cost to investment ratio.
Investment is also something I don’t see EVs pull off very well. Most EVs in the name of being as economical as possible will try to have as many parts as possible shared between models which ultimately means the only kind of EV to possibly go up in value would be those that are coach built. And those I imagine would be super expensive. Cars like manual shifter sports cars and supercars with V10 and V12 or rotary engines are appreciating in value which means you’ll have some financial security if you look after your toy well enough.
Lastly, there’s the diversity of building cars which is in relation to the one point above. With ICE, you can place engines in various locations, select different drivetrain and aspirations and build the car around it. This creates a more diversity in the challenge to build cars as there’s always something new to be learned and experienced all the time.

There’s so much more to ICE cars that I feel that many are ignoring that we don’t need ICE anymore even for long journeys or the fact that they can be run on alternative fuel as well without having to worry about range. There are people that buy cars for emotional reasons or driving fast on long distances… and that’s where EVs just fall short dramatically. There is no perfect system in this universe, so mocking one for being inferior over the other is just a halo observation.

Even in most developed countries the whole recharging issue is far from being solved. You either have the opportunity to charge at home our youre screwed.
If you look at the cost side of things EVs are much more expensive than compareable ICE cars despite goverment subsidies, it would take 7-10 years until the EV saves you money by lower “fuel” costs.
Its also a common myth that EVs dont need maintenance. You will save yourself the engine oil change, but a normal service at a dealership usually includes a visual check of the undercarriage/suspension components and tyres, maybe a brake fluid/coolant change and topping off the washer fluid as well for example. If your EV has some kind of transmission, diff or transfer case that might need an oil change at some point as well. Ive heard that the annual Tesla service is 400-600 bucks.

People always seem to forget that an ICE doesn’t necessarily have to run on dead dinosaur; BMW and AMR have successfully run hydrogen V12s, dragsters have been running on alcohol for years, and carbon-neutral fuels are already in use

Bullshit until it wins le mans 24h

In a nutshell ice is:
-cheaper
-more fun
-safer
-more reliable
-lasts longer
-more efficient
-can use biofuels
So I would say that there are many reasons to stay whith ice, for example, some months ago my father (a police officer) told me that he went to a crash were a porsche cayenne hybrid had a accident… The crash it self didn’t kill the passengers but a fire that had started due to the batteries sadly killed most of them(only the driver survived I think).

My idea is to turn all the boring everyday cars into electric cars and keep the purist cars petrol

Jay Leno talked about this 10 odd years ago, when asked about the future of cars. He essentially said that regular drivers, that care nothing for cars, will buy electric or hydrogen or other types of cheap and easy to use transport. It will only make ICE cars a collectors and enthusiasts item.

No, there are other reasons to go with ICE. You can do trackdays with them. EV’s overheat long before a track session is over. Also, ICE vehicles nowadays last at least 15 years if maintained properly, with some of the better engineered ones lasting far longer. EV batteries degrade after just 10 years.

yet once you change the battery, you can go virtually forever

Another reason to own a gas powered car. people like to work on their cars, make them there own. With an EV car what you see is what you get in the performance department, with a gas powered car you can make your car your own. That’s something evs will never have, and why I will never own one.

not entirely true. There are multiple examples out there with “modified” EVs, but so far it is limited to what there is to do, basically you can change the controller (“ECU” for the motor), upgrade battery packs (stupid expensive), hell even motor swaps. In the RC world, you can wrap your own motor wire, but this is a lot bigger and obviously takes a lot of knowledge.

Toyota is hiding something! there’s gotta be a reason why the world’s #1 manufacture in electric/hybrid/hydrogen technology hasn’t produced a full EV. I hope hydrogen is the future, we can fill up in 5 minutes like gas, it can use capacitors rather than batteries to save space and weight, and capacitors have a much better store/release rate (more power!) and much less susceptible to heat and cold. While having all the benefits of an EV!

i don’t see why anyone would want the hassle to go to the gas station while you can charge a battery car by parking it. I don’t see the point of hydrogen…
btw capacitors rules