F355 / 360 V8s, how do they sound like that?
 

I know it has something to do with the fact that they are "flat plane crank" V8's, however I don't understand it fully and as I am now finished school with nothing at all to do I would like to learn. does anyone know of a good site that explains this well.

nobody knows :)

that's the Ferrari magic :D

Small displacement high revving.. ;)

Also , they spend time tuning the intake, then way the air goes in creates ,in part; the magic.

u can download some video................ i had 2 that is about 360............ then u can heard the sound of the great ferrari engine

The Lotus Esprit V8 had a flat plane crank too but it doesn't sound as good as Ferraris V8 more like a 4 cylinders, it's a technic used in competition. :lol:

Well, I think they pay very close attention to the length and shape of the intake and exhaust manifolds; and the number of values (5 per cylinder) has some effect. In addition, the high rpms of the engines has a lot to do with it.

Also, it's Italian. ;)

the 5 valves is a big part of it. it's 3 intake, and 2 exhaust, with the exhaust valves having VVT which gives improved performance at high revs, hence the enormous beautiful sound :D

I wouldnt say that Ferrari's have small engines.

the flat crank V8 produces exhaust pulses that sound like that.
of kos not having a turbo (like lotus) and having an engine that revs high with suitable cam and intake design contributes to the music :)

Whats up with all the V8 talk? How will you explain the magic of ferrari V12's?

we are talking abt the sound V8 makes ... no one comes close
the V12 .. ? nothing special compared to the rest

it's primarily the muffler

There is much magic in intake/exhaust tuning. If you recall during the original Miata development, thousands of hours were spend analyzing/tuning the exhaust to make it sound *just right*...it has that slightly "braaaap" sound when cold, and then warms up to a mellow but unobtrusive growl.

But I agree with RC45--small displacement, high-rev engines (esp V-8s) have a unique sound.

Just throwing in my €0,02, I think the flatplane configuration contributes very much to the sound difference from usual crossplane garden V8.
Flatplane means you can actually rev them higher since there are no counter-balance weights involved, and in terms of engine sound you always got 2 cylinders getting sparked up at the same time (as opposed to the crossplane). Then of course the intake and muffler resonances get tuned to musical sounding frequencies I suppose. I know a link where they analyse an older Ferrari V8 and come to the conclusion that everything is very harmonic, but I suppose you need to have a lot of sound analysing experience (which I don't) to be convinced of that by only reading through it. Here's the link anyway:
http://www.ymec.com/hp/signal2/car1.htm