Please give us the new Ferrari F430!

[Oranginas]

Yes, an Aston V8 is a lot more grunty and guttural than a Ferrari V8. Ferrari V8s feature a flat-plane crankshaft, which is one of the key ingredients for its high revs and peak power. The Rover V8 and Aston V8 are more traditional V8s, without the ability to produce such high rev counts. However, cubes of course dosh out prodigious torque, not to mention a nice, creamy V8 woofle. The result is a motor that is less "on edge" than a Ferrari V8, one that doesn't need to be kept up in the powerband to really press on. Both the British V8s and the Italian V8 sound great, by the way.
This reflects a difference in usability: you'd tire of driving the Ferrari to work and in traffic because ofits relatively poor visibility (mid-engined) and its relative lack of torque. The aston, in contrast, has a more conventional front-engined, rwd layout, better visibility and ever-available torque reserves. You'd feel more relaxed driving that to work, however, if you came to stumble across a good piece of road it'd become a capable sporting car as well. So ultimately, it's the difference between supercar and super GT.

[Fuzzy]

As good as a V8 sound is, my preferred engine would be a straight-six like in the Lexus IS200. Now that's one nice noise, really makes you giddy at the knees... might make driving the things dangerous!

Not so keen on the V6 formation though, thinking back to the Mondeo BTCC car a few years back, just a dull, loud, buzz...

V8s are nice though. I prefer the chuggy, burbly noise an MGBGT would make... but the noise from, say, a 360 Challenge Stradale is just something else, really... makes you turn around and stare for a long time... yummee.

V10... meh.

V12, aha! Very nice... Jaguar E type, then on to the Vanquish, whooo the Vanquish. So sharp and responsive...

This has just become a load of thinking out loud, I'm sorry.

[graveltrap]

As good as a V8 sound is, my preferred engine would be a straight-six like in the Lexus IS200. Now that's one nice noise, really makes you giddy at the knees... might make driving the things dangerous!

Lexus meh! could have picked a better straight 6...M3 CSL or maybe the one out of a Tuscan

[Oranginas]

Heh, speaking of the Tuscan, I saw Swordfish for the first time yesterday. Te only reason I really wanted to see it was that: the Tuscan. Does that car rock or what, shame TVR couldn't wish to pass US legislation at that time, they would have sold them in spades! It was especially interesting to see Hugh Jackman allegedly hustle that car around while his character was probably not familiar with rhd, let alone a stick shifter. And of course consider that the Tuscan has a reputation for not being the easiest car to drive... Still, that Tuscan chase was probably the highlight of the whole movie for me. I love the part where no bullets can hit Travolta when he's getting the gun from the boot... bulletproof fiberglass bootlid, anyone?

[daniel2001]

the v6 in any current jag sounds pretty good of you are in neutral and you have the windows open, sounds a lot stronger (especially the 2.5l) than it is

[iceburns288]

Here's a lesson for ya:

Flat-4: sound like... gross
Flat-6 getting there, not much though
V6: narsty
V8: lovely (cases: CS, 430, AMV8)
V10: has potential (the Gallardo is AMAZING, especially with Tubi, along with CGT)
V12: Works in supercars (Enzo) %!^?# in other cars (Murcielago, 760Li)

[ArchSpartan]

the long stroke flat 6 of a Jag XJS is a fantastic sound, It's reasonably quite for pootling about town, mid range it starts to "wooosh" and at high revs its got a distinctive growl to it, very nice engine.

I thought that the Rover V8's heritage is an American V that Rover bought and modified?. I'll investigate and get back.......

[Oranginas]

XJS don't have a flat six, it's an in-line six! Porsches have flat sixes, subarus have flat fours. "Flat" engines have a very distinctive throb. Although not the last word in engine audio, the flat four is still nice than most in-line fours (except maybe for some Vtecced Honda units). Porsche's flat six has a very distinctive, gravelly sound which changes to a coarse howl higher up the rev range. I quite like it, but then there are bound to be individual differences in that. In-line sixes (like the XJS and E type, and most BMWs) generally sound great, but I would argue that many V6es sound very nice as well. Of course it depends on their quality, but for instance Audi V6es or the Merc V6 in the Chrysler Crossfire have a very nice, cultured sound to them. Not in-yer-face like a Ferrari V8, of course, but then that's beside the point. Very nice for yous saloon car. The NSX's V6 manages to combine the two, however: nice and cultured for pootling along, and hard-edged and racy near the red.
I disagree completely with your comment on the Murcielago, though. I thought that sounded very nice, much more vocal than the V12s Ferrari uses in the 550/575 and the 612. Of course you must make a distinction between engines for true sports cars and GTs on one side, and regular road cars on the other side. Of course a Merc's 600 biturbo will be somewhat anodyne compared with the Ferrari V12, but that does not make it a worse engine, only one with a different emphasis. Such engines do not sound badly, they're just very well insulated and tuned for quietness (and therefore produce hardly any noise at all). The Zonda's V12 (also a Merc unit) proves that an engine can sound fantastic if it's allowed to do so, but in other Merc products the emphasis is much more on quiet performance.
The Rover V8 was originally a (fro US standards) very advanced Chrysler unit, small block, all-alloy etc. Chrysler chose not to pursue it, and the engine was considered as a powersource for boats. There a Rover rempresentative stumbled across it. Rover was looking for a replacement for its in-line sixes, and this fitted the bill (and, more importantly, they fitted their cars) perfectly. And thus a legend was born...

[graveltrap]

You have to remember that Iceburns is the ultimate Ferrari Fanboy...

Rover V8 was originally designed for Buick...I think...

[Oranginas]

You are, of course, completely right. Bugger, should have checked before I typed. Still, the whole boat thingy is pretty funny, especially if you consider that most TVRs that have been powered by the Rover V8 are far from watertight...