The Tones

A few of the tones were recorded at Willow Springs Raceway out in Rosemond, California and a few others were recorded on various sections of Mulholland Highway. The latest tone was recorded at the Friday qualifying session of the Long Beach round of the American Le Mans series.

RaceTones on Itunes

Click the link below to access RaceTones on Itunes.

The Porsches

The 911 notifier sound

The Porsche revving on the ITunes link is from a street-based 1971 911S with a 2.7L. It's only a brief tone and was meant only as a ringtone. I'd like to thank Max for his use of his Porsche. The 2.0L that was recorded at Willow Springs is vintage racing 1967 2.0L 911. That tone was a little tougher to record as it was during a race and the sounds of the other vehicles bled in but it does makes some great "garage music".

The Porsche 917 sound

What a great sound! This full-throttle Porsche 917 sound explodes into your ears as its 12 cylinder engine propels it down the track. Click here to download

IPhone users click here for the m4r file and save it to a location on your computer you can remember.

Here's how to get it to your Iphone:

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The Ferraris

The Ferrari F355 and the Challenge Stradale were recorded on various sections of Mulholland Highway and through Kanan Rd. There's lots of fast sweepers and some tunnels which help amplify the sounds. I'd like to thank Jeremy for the use of his Ferraris and working with me to get the tones just right.

The Sounds of the Monterey Historics

I always remembered the wonderful sounds of the IMSA Monzas and Porsche 935's at Riverside Raceway. You could stand on the Bosch bridge over the straight and listen to them go screaming by at near 200mph. Now Laguna Seca has numerous pedestrian bridges but they're way too crowded to get any decent recording. After wandering around the rack, I found a little-used bridge that is in an acceleration zone right after the corkscrew. It was here that I could record the cars without the annoying loud-speaker system that's everywhere on the track.

The Sounds of the American Lemans at Long Beach

So I sat along Shoreline Drive as the ALMS cars came screaming by. This was a good location as you can hear the exhausts crackle and the downshifts as they braked at the end of the straight. About 1:17 into the sound, you can hear the thunderous GT Corvettes going by followed about 10 seconds later by that gorgeous-sounding Aston Martin V12 LMP car. Those Vettes were something to behold as no other American V8 in any class produced the ground-pounding rumble that they did. The file can be accessed here: Long Beach ALMS sounds

The Shelby Cobras and Mustangs at the Cobra Club event at Willow Springs

So I figured I'd head out to the track to record these V8-powered missles. While there were no real 427 Cobras there, I did get to record an authentic Shelby GT350 and a 1964 289 Cobra (Thanks to Dr. Davis and Mr. Knisley). The GT350 was loud but nowhere nearly as loud as the Cobra. Both times the recorder was in the trunk for the ride but maybe because of the side exhaust on the Cobra was the reason it was so loud.. That being said, I've got a nice startup and slight accel through the pits but, once it hits the track, the sound pressure was too great for the recorder.