Why do some people like to mod their cars to be as loud as possible?

There's an episode of South Park called "The F Word" that indirectly covers this.

I think we all know the reason, but the community is for "positive discussions ".

I think that, and gas powered mini-bikes that some kids ride around where I live, are extremely rude and downright agony to be forced to hear. Agony. Usually, I love life.

My f****** neighbor does this. I don't care what people do to their cars, but he'll sit in our shared driveway listening to music in his car with the volume and the bass up super loud. It fills my whole house. I've asked him not to do this because it gives me a migraine, and he'll always be apologetic, but then he does it again a few days later. It's so frustrating.

There was a study about sound in society that (iirc) said, basically, that in dense societies being loud means standing out of the crowd, being noticed. As people climb the socio-economic ladder then silence/quiet stats to matter more because it is achievable.

Apparently there's an entire subculture built around it, along with the "noise equals safety" stuff. Just read the comments here about loving the sound of their engines: I have to force myself to believe they're serious, so we're obviously coming from wildly different viewpoints.

There's a primal urge in some people to be loud to attract mates. If there's deadly animals around you make loud noise to declare your territory. Then any rival or predator in the area knows you're there and you have extra energy to fight. Mix that with cars as a status symbol where males attract mates via resource collection and display and its all just a modern tweak of our primal mating strategies 

I like my vehicles to be loud because I love to hear my engine. I'm very mechanically minded and love cars and engines in general. A finely tuned and audible exhaust note appeals to me like a person's favorite song would appeal to them. There's also the satisfying instant feedback of more throttle = more sound. I liken that to the same sort of enjoyment someone gets from playing a musical instrument. To me it's like I'm making the machinery sing. That being said, theres a time and place. I have a loud ass Harley that I love to hear as well (I know, I know) but when I worked 2nd shift and was getting home at 2am, I was often either idling into my driveway, or sometimes I even shut the engine off and coasted so I wouldn't bother the neighbors. IMO you're not a d*** for liking a loud vehicle, but you're definitely a d*** when you think everyone wants to be woken up by it in the middle of the night.

There is research on this. They do this because they get pleasure from making other people suffer. Cruelty makes weak people feel strong. [A desire for a loud car with a modified muffler is predicted by being a man and higher scores on psychopathy and sadism](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10699294/)

Real Gs move in silence, these are the dudes whose women we usually be stealin

I did that on my first vehicle by accident because it was so old the exhaust system rusted off. Why anyone would do that on purpose feels like the same people that buy pre-shredded jeans, so some kind of 'look at me' fashion.

Usually the same kind of people who send unsolicited d*** pics...

Mental disorder

I can only imagine. Living in the city you hear far too much. If I were King, I’d regulate that shit and enjoy some peace and quiet.

Look at meeeeeeeee Mommy!!!!!

The whistle goes, Woo WOO!

There's different levels to this. Some people install custom mufflers on their cars or replace the pipes with stainless steel ones in order to enhance the sound and make the driving experience more enjoyable. This usually makes the car a little louder and gives it a sportier tone. Some people install full on custom exhausts on performance builds in order to gain a few horsepower. The people you're thinking of do full on resonator and muffler deletes because they think that loud = cool. Not only does straight piping the car make it impossibly loud and increase emissions, you are also effectively losing power because exhaust gases are flowing more freely than they should. It's also common to pair this straight pipe exhaust with a popcorn/crackle tune, which makes the engine intentionally misfire when decelerating, getting unburnt fuel into the exhaust which then ignites due to the gases' heat. This mod further weakens performance and is slowly destroying the engine by putting extra strain into the components and getting gasoline into the engine oil.

Totally for attention

Men do this. Women never do this. I hope they don’t remove my post, but it’s true.

They're compensating for something

In my country, BMW drivers like to mod their exhausts to sound farty as f***. I appreciate a nice, smooth exhaust but the "dropping a bomb on hiroshima in the men's toilet" noises aren't attractive at all

The new trend where the exhaust sounds like straight up gunshots is starting to piss me off

It's a male thing. Probably learned behavior from childhood 🤷 Like maybe a girl would be like "I could do worse, no?"

Inferiority complex. Compensation for lack of positive attention

I don't understand a bit of it !!!!

Oh the irony of my annoying as f*** neighbors driving by in their modified truck as soon as I see this post. 🥲

Small p****.

We had to move because between the pickup trucks with modified exhaust and the extremely loud Harlies driving down our " fun to drive" road, summers were a nightmare. So loud you couldn't be outside. They are all mostly deaf from their own noise, it doesn't bother them.

Small d*ck energy.

Mom didn’t like them enough.

Those people are commonly called “Attention Whores”, and this behavior is part of their mating ritual.

when i was a car guy my goal was never to make my car loud, just fast. if i could have increased my power without making it louder that would have been fine. loudness comes with removing restrictions in the exhaust system so it’s kind of inevitable. i think a lot of people purposefully make their car louder so it has the appearance of high performance, without necessarily making it actually high performance.

Children enjoy loud sounds.

Be loud as hell and slow asf lmfao 🤣

The technical answer is that less muffler/catalytic converter/things to make it quieter, the easier and more efficient it is for exhaust to exit the car. If it’s easier to get exhaust out, it can often be easier to combust new fuel/air and make more power. The more common answer is they don’t care about that and their cars aren’t tuned for it, they’re just dicks.

Entirely depends on the person you're talking about. If it's an enthusiast who has spent a good chunk of money on their vehicle making it look however they want, upgrading for performance etc. Then you're dealing with someone who considers their vehicle a form of art. That artwork also includes the sound. Just like you may like going to a loud music concert. You go because you like the sound being produced and you like the performance being but on. The body work is the performance and the noise coming from their exhaust is the music. Pissing people off is an unfortunate by product for these people. And you'll often find they try to be as reasonable as possible, like only riding later in the day and coming home early in the evening to avoid being a nuisance as much as possible. Then you get the clapped out shit cars where they just slap a loud exhaust on that sounds like shit because they either like to tinker with shit or just want to show off for their mates. Then you have the inbetweeners. The people with money and nice cars and thrive on attention. Good or bad, if people are looking they're getting attention, it doesn't matter to them. So really, it's a mix. I'm a lover of a nice sounding loud vehicle that's had time and effort and thought put into it. But I'm a hater of those that do it for nothing but pure attention or those who don't care about the notes coming out, they just want loud.

Because their hot dogs are too small for their buns

To compensate.

To irritate the hell out of people, just like why some people set up their car stereo for maximum thump. For a while I worked in a car stereo adjacent industry, and we used to get trade magazines advertising cassettes and later CDs with "Super Thump for Maximum Irritation"

Tiny d*** syndrome.

Because they enjoy the sound of the engine. I had two trucks that had the exhaust cut off just after the cat. I loved the sound of it. The V8 sounded better than the I5 but both were enjoyable. The addition of driving on remote dirt or gravel roads and swinging the ass end around turns was so much fun. I drive a much quieter economy car now, but still miss being a young guy stomping the gas and listening to the sound and feeling the vibration as I speed up.

It sounds cool. And other car people think it sounds cool.

People like engine sounds.

Decoration https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy4ZK4qBUrI

I think there's a few different types of people that do this and it's not always for the same reasons. Some people, as you say, do it just to make their car noisy for the sake of being anti-social. Or another group who make it louder because they have an engine that does sound great, like a V8, Flat Four, Rotary or whatever. Or another group that are doing it for performance reasons, turbocharged petrol and diesel cars can have very large performance increases with minor intake and exhaust mods to increase gas flow plus a remap, with the side effect of drastically increased noise. I personally love the sound of engines, but I can't stand artificial "Pop and Bang" maps. I'm all for proper anti-lag set ups, launch control or the occasional flame on overrun but making a 1.0 Ecoboost sound like a night out in Baghdad is not the one

Loud as in, just annoying? Or are you including the loud sound a racecar makes?

My car is a little louder than average street traffic (about 10% louder than stock), but I’m very mindful when driving in low gears through residential areas. I like my car’s sound where it is, but I think it can get addictive to make your car louder and louder with no mind to how annoying it is for others. Some people do it for their own enjoyment, and some want attention, just like anything else.

they think its cool. i don't understand the high pitched ones, they're so grating. i love a deep rumble. i just saw a Type R with a sweet, low rumble 😍😍. oof 😍. the car community has its niches. my civic is stock and happens to have a loud-ish engine. it has been annoying sometimes, because people seem to think im showing off. so I'd assume people who Intend to make their cars louder want to "show off"

Puursonally (heh) I do I enjoy the sound of a well tuned engine with a well tuned exhaust. I like hearing the things do their thing. Super ridiculous popping bullshit should be saved for the track but a nice V8 with a bit of throaty tones is awesome.

I did a mod somewhat like that on my old Mustang. Aside from liking the sound, it gave me 10% more horsepower. Note that I did not run it with no mufflers. I put in an H pipe and Flowmasters, so it was louder, but not "wake the neighborhood" loud. Might have forgotten to put the cats back in too.

Believe it or not but people get pleasure from different things. Some quiet. Some loud. Some big. Some small.

Automotive enthusiast here. Personally I love the sound of my vehicle. That being said there is being too loud, though my definition is probably further out than yours. Not all exhausts sound good, nor do all engines sound good either. For a daily driven vehicle its nice to hear a rumble, for your project car I like it pretty loud. Some may claim you get better power with a free flowing (loud) exhaust which is true but for most vehicles you probably would never notice the difference. Personally when my project vehicle ran, I tried to be as polite as possible by not starting it up at 5 in the morning or if I got back late, I would try to coast into the neighborhood at idle or even neutral with the engine off. So to summarize, its because most people who enjoy vehicles like to hear their engine.

Try a German sports sedan. Maybe 480 hp. A powerful engine is a dopamine machine. Press acceleration and 6 cylinder turbo goes vroom pushing you back in your seat and releases endorphins. Same reason people like roller coasters. Motion can be endorphins releasing. The loudness is just a part of the experience.

Kleiner Funfact: Es gibt Leute, die machen in einem Tunnel extra die Scheibe runter um den Sound ihres Sportwagens zu hören. Porsche hat darauf reagiert und ist gerade dabei eine Tunnelerkennung anhand GPS einzuführen, die das automatisch übernimmt. Wer das nicht haben will, kann es deaktivieren. Es ist aber erstmal eingeschaltet.

When I was young and ignorant and not too smart, I modified some of my cars, over the years, to be loud. That may still be the explanation.

My cynical mind says the louder the exhaust, the greater the deficiency in the trouser package department they are making up for.

It's not about the noise, it's about airflow. The engine is just a big compressor taking air in and pumping it out. To get the best performance from your engine, you need to have low air restrictions. Factory exhaust systems have noise constraints, and in meeting those limits, the exhaust is not as efficient as it can be. A freer flowing exhaust will not have air restrictions, but the effects of that are more noise. There are people that straight pipe their cars, and they just make obnoxious noise with no performance benefit if they don't at least tune for the exhaust, those cars are obnoxious. I have a V8 in my car with a performance exhaust, but it's been tuned for the exhaust. It's on the louder side, but not the kind that rattles your dentures out. So just know, most of the time you hear that loud exhaust, it's some kid in a clapped out POS

please give me attention

There was a kid in my area who imported a JDM Euro convertible. Had what I described as the “hood gunfight tune” that was also on/off. It was stupid loud. He did it just to be an a******. Cops in my area also don’t like that kind of thing, so it only lasted a couple months.

It's likely connected to the same reason cars these days are being designed with angry faces.

I'm one that put a better set of dual Flowmaster 10 mufflers alongside straight tube headers for better performance, only then did I notice a lounder more deep rumble to the car.

Friend, they have micropenis.

To imitate the super cars

Have you ever worked on a car?

These boys are pickme girls.

To stroke their own ego

Some cars are just naturally loud straight off the factory floor. Go look up a cold start video of an Escalade V, for example. The Fiat 500 Abarth and Dodge Neon SRT4 are notable examples of cars that had no muffler from the factory (unless you count the turbo as a muffler) Some cars (specifically those with forced induction) *can* see significant performance gains from more free-flowing exhaust systems. Catback and a tune is a c**** and easy way to wake up a lot of hot hatch type cars. Some cars just sound good loud, like old muscle cars with that V8 cam lope that shakes your chest. I dare say if I saw an old Chevelle SS roll by that was quiet, that would be kind of weird and I wouldn't like it Some loud cars sound like a buzzsaw and the owners do it either because they have no ears or because their entire goal is to annoy people, or both. I've had a couple toys that were louder than stock, but always kept off throttle/kept revs at idle until I was out of the neighborhood, never sat in the driveway revving (unless very momentarily while trying to diagnose a mechanical problem), avoid making any noise at hours when people are likely to be sleeping, and never anything ear-splitting or straight piped. Daily drivers have always been completely stock with stock mufflers.

🤏

For a lot of people it’s about the sound and the vibe, it makes the car feel more alive and aggressive. There’s also a bit of status in it, like standing out or showing enthusiasm.

"Look at meeeee" is why.

Go and try driving one - it's only natural to smile when you gas it.

They think they are making up for other shortcomings, they aren’t.

because it sounds cool? its not about other people, why do npcs always assume everything is about them

Every car guy love the sound of a V8 engine. But you need to be wealthy to buy that type of car, so in my opinion it's a way to sound like a big engine car without spending too much.

Attention, and a mistaken belief that it makes their car faster.

They have little peeny weenies and this is how they **attempt** to make up for that I just want to throw stones at those cars honestly lol 😆

They have small and insignificant genitalia.

While you may just hear an obnoxious, loud noise, a motoring enthusiast hears the purr of their finely tuned engine, in the same way a musician can appreciate the delicate note of an antique piano crafted with a particular type of wood. They’re hearing hours and hours of work that come together in an ensemble of mechanical symphony. They’re not only hearing the exhaust, they’re visualising each piston go up and down, and remembering taking them out one by one, cleaning them, and putting them back in. It’s extremely satisfying if you worked on it yourself.

They like how it sounds, most car people don’t modify their car to please or displease others, they just do it for their own enjoyment. With the increase in almost silent electric cars, loud exhaust have almost become a safety feature now as you can hear them coming which is great. The funny thing is people who complain about loud exhausts are the same people who let fireworks off lol Apparently body shaming is also acceptable if somebody has a loud exhaust

It's for horsepower. A quiet exhaust is quiet because it's restricted. By opening it up you get more power from the engine. If you cover your face with a pillow, you'll be quiet, but you can't breathe very well.

Some men love vibrating cars

Probably for the same reason Harley riders like it. They're loving their bike and that image and want to draw attention to how amazing their bike/engine is.

Because they are little children who need to draw attention to themselves.

So there are levels to this. I ride motorcycles, so I can give that side. Motorcycles, usually performance bikes, are tuned down a good amount because of emissions regulations. Usually this comes in the form of limiting air, limiting fuel, or adding catalytic converters. They also understand that the people who buy these bikes don’t really care about that stuff, for better or for worse. So they tend to design bikes with the expectation that you’re going to modify it to get the “intended experience”. For reference, I have a Husqvarna 701 SM. It’s a performance oriented Supermoto style bike. I had a 2019 model which was bone-stock. It was a great bike, but the fueling wasn’t very smooth at lower RPMs and the muffler got really hot, a heat shield for it is necessary I’d say. That bike got stolen so I got a 2023 version that someone had put an aftermarket exhaust on. The bike is louder, which I don’t love, but the low end has been smoothed out, the muffler stays relatively cool and is no longer a burn risk, and the bike overall makes more power and is more fun to ride. I’ve thought about buying a stock muffler to get the noise down, but then I’d be paying money to bring back all these negatives, which doesn’t make a lot of sense. Am I happy that it’s louder and worse for the environment? No. But I’m not really going to do anything about it at this point.

ITT - “this is a genuine question”, but let’s make sure to swamp real answers with hate and insults. Seems like you’re just looking to vent and for confirmation bias.