The Sound of the Suburbs

Watching a documentary on American cities on the box this evening, I was reminded how different their suburbs sound from those of European cities. It's the speed, number and the type of vehicles that does it, together with the traffic control.

In the US, they have V8 petrol engines that loudly growl. They have automatic gearboxes so that the engines rev quickly and loudly up to a maximum pitch, then drop again. There's a strongl throb to the engines which I find most attractive, and (so a female friend tells me) can be a real aphrodisiac. It's a very different sound from the smaller, manual-gearbox controlled diesel and petrol mix that we have, and much louder.

Has anyone else noticed this? And how will it change with the increasing price of fuel both here and there?


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