Ford is silencing the signature roar of its new Mustang GT. But only if the owner wants to.
The automaker announced this week two new features on the 2018 Mustang GT that lets owners control the noise volume generated by vehicle’s V8 engine.
The idea came from Steve von Foerster, the former head of vehicle engineering for Ford Motor Company, whose neighbor called the police after backing his loud Shelby GT350 Mustang out of the garage on an otherwise peaceful morning.
“I love the sound of the V8, but it can be loud, and you can’t annoy people like that in your neighborhood,” von Foerster, who now leads Ford’s user experience team in product development, said in a statement. “It sounds so cool, but I thought, ‘There has to be a way to give people more control over the engine’s sound.’”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1MehhS4GIw]
Ford ended up developing a quiet start and quiet exhaust modes. Quiet start, which Ford engineers call “good neighbor mode” lets owners schedule the time of day when their 2018 Mustang GT’s V8 engine will roar or be more muted. The quiet start-up times can be programmed in advance. For example, between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m., drivers can scheduling their car to start in quiet mode, Ford says.
The quiet exhaust mode, which limits the volume of the V8 engine by closing valves to restrict the amount of noise made by the car, be used anytime while driving.