Can you beat the majesty of a highly strung V10 or V12 engine? Festival of Speed showed much remains to be decided
Given it’s the closest thing Britain now has to a motor show, the Goodwood Festival of Speed is a chance to gauge the state of the car industry, and the displays laid out on the Duke of Richmond’s lawn this year represented a microcosm of the changes it’s undergoing.
We saw established firms leaning ever further into their heritage beside the ever-growing confidence of the Chinese; the sheer size of BYD’s stand sent quite a message, and there was also a substantial presence from the likes of MG and Lepas.
It was also fascinating how firms such as Mercedes-AMG and Alpine used Goodwood to showcase new EVs, such as the AMG GT 4-Door Coupé, CLA 45 and next-generation A110. Winning over the Festival’s enthusiast audience will be key to making EVs appeal as more than mere rational appliances.
How best to do that? For the new CLA 45, AMG has bet on a rorty, synthesised engine sound. At Goodwood Steffen Jastrow, the car’s chief engineer, enthused about the details to achieve this, such as shakers built into the seats that give physical feedback to match the sound and even how they programmed the digital rev counter dial to wobbly slightly. “It’s about making the driving experience more immersive,” he said. “It’s just really, really fun.”
But not everyone is convinced. Talking to Alpine boss Philippe Krief about the new A110, it was obvious that he isn’t a fan of fake combustion noise. “We have to find something,” he said, “but not necessarily to reproduce [engine noise]. It’s a new sound.”
A huge appeal of Goodwood is to stand beside the hillclimb and listen to some magnificent petrol engines roar past. There’s still a majesty to a highly strung V10 or V12 Formula 1 engine at full roar or the deep rumble of a Le Mans-winning V8. It’s part of the full sensory experience that creates emotion around cars. And that’s the challenge: an artificial noise will never replace that.
That’s not to say there isn’t a place for it: the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N has shown that such noise can help make electric vehicles more engaging to drive. But ultimately they won’t succeed simply by being high-tech imitations of petrol versions.
Progress for performance EVs will come when they are judged on their own abilities, not how similar to a combustion car they are.
