Three-cylinder engine sound

One and a half firings per revolution is an awkward number, and that awkwardness is what a three-cylinder sounds like. An even count gives you clean whole orders. An odd count on a four-stroke gives you half-orders, and the ear picks that up as the offbeat thrum that makes a modern small car recognisable from inside.

Ten seconds from a standing start. The launch, the gearbox working up through the ratios, then the overrun as the throttle closes. Driven by the same gearbox model the simulator runs, so the shift points are the ones you would hear in the car.

Unevenness is set to 22, moderately high. Three cylinders cannot balance each other the way four or six can, and the preset carries that as genuine irregularity rather than as an effect layered on top.

Noise runs at 120, which is high for the size. A small engine working hard is proportionally louder than a big one loafing, and this preset assumes it is being worked. Bass is 68, the lowest of any road car here, because a one-litre engine has very little bottom end to give.

The gearing is the other half of the impression. Five short ratios topping out at 32 km/h per 1000 rpm, a shift point of 3,000 rpm, and a 6,500 redline. At motorway speed it is sitting near 3,700 rpm and buzzing, exactly as the real thing does.

Overrun pops are 5, which is close to off. Small naturally aspirated engines do not crackle, and adding it would be the sort of flattery that makes a simulation less convincing.

First gear runs out at 42 km/h, so pulling away from a junction takes two changes before you are through it. That constant shifting is the most honest thing about the preset, and the reason it feels like a small car rather than a quiet one.

Specification

Every figure above is read from the preset the app actually runs, not retyped.

Drive it

Open the simulator with this engine selected, allow location, and press ignition. See how it works for what happens between GPS and sound.

Related

• Four-cylinder engine sound
• Turbo hot hatch sound
• Diesel engine sound

Every other engine

• RECORDED CARS
  • BAC Mono
  • Ferrari 458
  • BMW M1 Procar
• SUPERCARS
  • Muscle V8
  • Modern V8
  • V10
  • V12
  • Anti-lag rally car
  • Air-cooled flat-six
• NORMAL CARS
  • Four-cylinder
  • Turbo hot hatch
  • Inline-six
  • Diesel
  • Flat-four boxer
• FUN SOUNDS
  • Steam locomotive
  • Radial prop plane
  • Jet turbine
  • Alien craft
  • Single-cylinder thumper

All twenty on one page, with redline and gear count for each.