Anyone know? I'm curious. V6s typically sound awful to my ears. (Not always, but often.) Doesn't seem to be the case with the 296, which actually sounds good. The 120° vee might have something to do with it. Wondering what else might play a role. Does it have an unusual crank configuration or firing order? Any other thoughts?
Ferrari has the answers "The firing order of the new V6 (1-6-3-4-2-5) is the result of the crankshaft’s journal geometry." https://www.ferrari.com/en-EN/corporate/articles/296-gtb-defining-fun-to-drive
The F163 is a relatively new engine and I do not have contacts to Ferrari, so I can only speculate about how the crankshaft looks and how the cylinders are numbered, but I think this sketch makes sense.. Same crank design (same design but probably not same crank) and cylinder numbering as on the 690T engine.. Firing order is the same, stated on the official website.. The difference is the bank angle, 120°, which creates even 120° firing intervals as opposed to the 690T's 90°-150° uneven firing intervals.. Now, this even firing interval alone is not very useful in terms of sound if you don't properly design the exhaust system (example: BMW S55 and S58 with stock manifolds and midpipes). Now here, we have a V6 with 2 turbos. So each cylinder bank has a 3 into 1 manifold going into a turbo, and then an exhaust pipe going to the back (one for each bank, two in total). The two exhaust pipes only "merge" at the exhaust tip. But it's okay, they don't have to merge, since the manifolds and pipes are equal length. Thus, you hear the nice symphony of 120° even firing intervals coming out of the exhaust tip. Summary: key things are the 120° bank angle and equal length exhaust system Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Wow, thank you! What an unbelievably great first post. It even features a very helpful hand sketch! I'm going to call my dad tonight, we've been discussing this but haven't found a clear explanation. He's going to love this! THANK YOU!
Very informative. Ferrari refer to this engine as the piccolo V12. I was told it sounds very similar to a V12, not exactly the same but very close. It was intentionally engineered to be like this.
You're welcome I've done these sketches for a few different engines already because I wanted to know how they got their firing order. Then I looked at the exhaust from the manifolds all the way to the back (hard to find these images sometimes), and by listening to the engine, I tried to somehow make sense of the sound the car/bike makes.. Of course, in order to get a precise result, I would have to make a geometrically accurate 3D model of the exhaust system and run CFD on it with the respective firing interval/s, but I don't have a good enough computer
Well, personally I think there is some F140 V12 sound in there, but only because the F140 kinda sounds like a V6 when it's stock lol.. Listen to an F140 engined car with an iPE exhaust, or a Secret Weapon exhaust.. Now that's a real V12 sound, not even a hint of 6 cylinder in there.. Back to the 296 GTB - I love the sound and it's definitely the best sounding V6 street car currently on sale. When comparing stock to stock I find it even better sounding than the V8 twin turbo, though so far there have been much much better aftermarket exhausts for the V8 twin turbo than for the V6. But I hope time will do it's thing.. All the current aftermarket exhausts are way too muffled for my liking.. I wanna hear the thing scream ******* it!
