6 of the best sounding muscle cars
Looks can captivate, but for car lovers, how a car sounds is arguably its strongest sensory trait. Done right, a screaming engine emits a visceral thrill you never forget. Some cars hit the perfect notes to magically elevate the pulse of exhaust gases from mere byproduct to a piston-powered symphony playing a piece in the time signature of 10.5-to-1.
Few eras are so closely tied to these distinctive sounds as the late 1960s and early 1970s. At its peak, the muscle car era’s V-8 noisemakers from just about every manufacturer were unleashed, piped through simple mufflers with little restriction. Here’s a handful of the best from the era.
Oldsmobile 442 W-30
Nothing can sneak up on you at a stoplight like an Olds 442. A grown up’s muscle car, plenty of people have been surprised by what the 442 was packing. The W-30 package put 455 cubic inches of rumble under dual fiberglass scoops. A factory 13-second car in its day, and the exhaust note backed it up.
Plymouth Road Runner
While some of the heavy hitters in this category rely on big displacement, Plymouth did a lot with comparatively little when it came to the base engine in the Road Runner. A 383 is pretty big by modern standards, but was the undercard to the big 440- and 426-cubic inch engines for most of its production run. Those who know are quick to defend it, however, and rightfully so. Putting out 335 horsepower and over 400 pound feet is nothing to sneeze at, and the design of the engine makes it sound awesome, too.
Chevrolet Chevelle LS6
With a shape as timeless as the Chevelle, the engine has to back it up. Luckily, the LS6 454 does not live to disappoint. The rumble seems to permeate the bones of those in the bucket seats—this is a muscle car’s muscle car. It’s brash, unapologetic, and willing to light the tires up anytime and anywhere.
Ford Galaxie
While the Galaxie might not be the first choice of a lot of enthusiasts, it’s worth your attention, if only for the sound. The Galaxie featured multiple flavors of the FE engine, spanning from 332 cubic inches all the way to the mighty 428. You can find an FE in everything from a four-door wagon to the Batmobile—seriously. And the best part? They all sound great.
Pontiac GTO
The GTO is unquestionably muscle car royalty, and though it came with more powerful engines, the 389 with three carburetors stacked on top is one of our favorites. A responsive and powerful package that also dresses up darn nice, the middleweight 389’s popularity makes it a great choice for a fun to drive muscle bruiser.
Dodge Challenger R/T
Few engines command the awe and respect like the legendary 426 Hemi. Combine that with the timeless shape of the 1970 Dodge Challenger and it’s a match made in heaven. The Hemi gets its name from the shape of the combustion chamber, but that also affects the sound due to how the exhaust flows out into the manifolds. Newer designs are more efficient, but there is nothing like the grumble that comes from the back of a 426-powered car.
https://youtu.be/ZjgxZsD7Rc4?si=yt5KMswO5Ae0WsEX
Have a favorite that isn’t listed here? Leave it in a comment below.
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My original, one owner ( I bought it in Jan 1972) Mustang 351 CJ sounds absolutely incredible at about 4000+ RPM. Years ago, I average 105 mph from Willow to Fairbanks AK. Unbelievable wonderful drive. For awhile, A Porsche 911, not a (Carrera) tried to keep up, but he couldn’t accelerate out of the corners fast enough and faded.
Camaro Z/28 with the factory chambered exhaust. The the all time winners, from the factory, are the Chevelle LS6 and Hemi Cuda. These two had a rumble that literally shook the windows in the house as they IDLED by.
The DZ 302 anyone? Come on.
The Chevelle SS sounded the best in these few videos……………surprised nobody noticed the 396 emblem on the Chevelle fender. If the 396 was an L78 it would sound pretty close to the LS6 since they were both closed-chamber heads with 11.25:1 compression for the LS6 and 11.00:1 compression for the L78.
Would have liked to hear the 701/2 Z/28 with the LT-1.
Both the Chevelle and the Z/28 sounded best with the M-22 transmission and 4:10/4:11 gears.
A factory stock chambered exhaust, that could be gotten as an option on the 1969 Z/28, high revving DZ 302 small block engine, is a hard one to beat !!
I think the Chevelle was running headers, though it sounded really, really good. I’m a fan of great flowing factory manifolds, when they were offered, and some nice turbo mufflers bolted on. Meineke made really nice ones at one point (a long time ago now!). I’ve had a lot of compliments when I was running 2 1/2 in Walker Ultra flows with pretty standard headers on my slightly breathed on ’70 GS 455. Heck, just the factory idle burble of a stock ’84 Monte Carlo SS sounds pretty sweet!
My favorite mufflers were Maremont TurboFlows that were available in the ’80s. I had those on my 1970 Chevelle SS with a cloned LS6 in it. It was the 2nd best street car I ever heard. The without-a-doubt best I ever heard was my friend’s 1973 Plymouth Duster that had a 340 built with all Direct Connection parts, including Mopar hemi mufflers. Oh man did that car sound so good.
I had a 1968 Camaro SS 350ci that I bought new in ’68. Within the first year, I had blown up the stock 350 and put in a 301ci (283ci over-bored by 0.120) with 11.5:1 pistons and the Z-28 solid lifter off-road racing cam (P/N 3927140-funny that I still remember that). I first had the original turbo mufflers (from the Corvair Turbo cars) on the car, but lusted after the C2 side exhausts. I soon got a set of the Vette side exhausts with the chambered pipe under the covers; however, because I was running long tube headers, I had to cut off about half of the chambered Vette exhaust (under the full length covers) to make the connection to the headers. The sound of that small block winding up to 6,000 plus thru those pipes was incredible, but they sure were loud inside the car – you couldn’t carry on a conversation or listen to the radio. Which was just fine with me – the music was outside the doors.
Are you kidding? The 1969-1970 Shelby sounded amazing and with that center port exhaust … so cool looking too, Brings me back to my adolescence. My first automotive heart throb.
Well, the unquestionable champ is the Mustang with the V8. 302, 351, 428, Coyote, etc., the all sound amazing and have that distinct rumble, not that popcorn sound like some on this list. I will put my 2011 GT with the Coyote and Flowmaster FX axle back against anyone.
Ummmm C3 Vette any engine. 327 was reeeeaaal Naayce!
C2! …Typo😆
Seriously, no video with an actual car for the one that started it all? The motor out of the car one did not do justice.
Out of the six you gave us to pick from, and one wasn’t even in a car, but on an engine stand, I thought the 1st one had the nicest sound at idle. Yon didn’t state if the six engines shown were stock pipes and mufflers, which it was quite obvious the Pontiac 389 on the dyno stand did not have stock pipes and mufflers, so it appears to not be a stock original sound on them all. Like I said, if the1st one was stock exhaust in the 1970 Oldsmobile 442 with the torque monster 455 W30 car had the nicest stock idle sound hands down !! I’m of age to have owned, or friends to have owned, driven, rode in, and heard all of these cars, since my birth year was 1950. I personally never owned, or had an acquaintance that owned a 1970 455 ci Torque Monster Oldsmobile 442 W30, so my pick is unbiased of the 1st listed 1970 455 ci Oldsmobile 442 W30.
As I said, I personally never owned, or had an acquaintance that owned a 1970 455 ci Oldsmobile 442 W30, but rode, and driven a friend’s 1966 Oldsmobile 442 W30, Factory Blueprinted Bronze Painted L69, 400 ci Tri-2 BLL Carbs, Chrome Dual Snorkeled, Dual Air Inlet Feed Tubes Air Cleaner, 4-Speed Manual Transmission, in Tropic Turquoise Metallic Paint, that had an unbelievable stock sound, and ran like a raped ape. In fact Harry’s 1966 W30 was right up there with some of my top white knuckles rides !! One of our Friday or Saturday night 1/4 mile road races, which I did not take my 1969 COPO Camaro that night, so I went with Harry in his 66 W30. After the 3rd set of runs of the night, our lookout (no cell phones back then, just walkie-talkies with limited range) came back and said the State Troopers are coming, so about 40 to 50 cars scattered off into the night in various directions, on the country roads. When we were getting out of 1/4 mile setup, we saw the 4 Trooper’s cars coming at us off in the distance, with their red roof lights flashing, so Harry does a power U-turn, and the throttle sticks wide open. The car is somewhat uncontrollable, but flats it into 2nd gear. Now we’re sliding sideways on a dirt embankment with the nose up, but hearing chunks of sod and stones hitting the inner fenders. He flats 3rd gear, and luckily doesn’t miss it with everything going on. The tires finally start catching, and the W30 starts shooting out of the car length embankment, and gets the car somewhat straighten out on the other side of the road. Harry kept trying to milk the accelerator pedal, and thinking about turning the key off, and shutting the car down, before doing any engine, or, and body damage, and wait for the Troopers. Back in the 1960’s, the cops did not crucify you, like now of days. You were just good old boys having fun, but you still got fines for reckless driving, plus maybe to fast for conditions, and points added on your driver’s license, that would get you a loss of your driver’s license, if you had a sh!t load of points already, and an insurance cost jump. Luckily after milking the accelerator pedal all that time, but I think it was more from the hard bounce onto the road, after launching off the embankment, Harry got back accelerator pedal control again. No more full throttle, while he drove gingerly, until we got back to his garage, and checked it out. Luckily no cops followed, or caught up to us. All it was, was the one part of the Tri- Carb linkage going to the front carb popped off the carb, got lodged on the intake manifold tubes, so it was two carbs, middle and rear that were wide open, during one of my top white knuckles ride, and I wasn’t even driving. That ride is still brought up until this day, when us old motorheads get together, telling truths, and possibly some lies. Harry and I tell everyone it wasn’t driving skills, it was all just sh!t luck !!
Here is a clip of the exhaust of my factory stock 70 W30 4-Speed, with completely stock exhaust components.
https://youtu.be/x3Rj4gEBe7k?feature=shared
Not sure how a 1st gen Z-28 with chambered exhaust could be left off the list. I’m skeptical if any of those cars had factory pipes and mufflers.
1967 C2 L71, side Exhaust.
Known before it turns the corner
The poster of the Chevelle video confirmed, in its comments section, that it is running Flowmaster mufflers. The same brand someone in this article’s comments ridiculed. In addition, it sound to me like the Chevelle has got headers, too.. I used to have long tube headers and Flowmasters on my 1971 Super Bee. That combination sounded very bad ass, but for the sake of my hearing, I replaced the headers with stock HiPo exhaust manifolds.
I had occasion to drive a 70′ Buick GSX Stage 3 back in about 1985. It didn’t sound to good when the pipes were almost in the pavement, but when the front wheels came down it was an awesome sound. Pure Buick!
Clearly you have never had the pleasure of standing behind an idling L72 Big Block StingRay with side pipes. There is no experience quite like it. For you Harley afficianadoes, it is the literal equivalent of a quadra of Harley’s. Drop by Summerland BC sometime and I will show you exactly what I am talking about.