Am I wrong, or does this four-cylinder Ferrari racing engine sound like a lawn mower? – Jalopnik

Few car manufacturers can stir emotions as effectively as Ferrari. Driving a Ferrari is a pleasure that only a handful will ever experience, and for us mere mortals, seeing and hearing it is as close as we’ll ever get.

Luckily, they sound great and look dramatic. Sure, things may have gone a little south in recent years when it comes to the aural pleasure of a passing prancing horse, with lower-sounding V6 turbos taking the place of naturally aspirated V12s. Yet the sound they emit is very different from what we hear on the road on a normal day.

So while older Ferrari models are generally the best choice for those screaming twelve-cylinder soundtracks, there are some exceptions to the rule. There are the eight-cylinder classics, the six-cylinder Dino and even some very rarely spotted four-cylinders from the 1950s. Now four-cylinder engines can sound great, and legendary sports car manufacturer Ferrari must have gotten the audible aspect perfect, right?

Um, wrong. Just listen to this Ferrari 857 Monzo running below.

Now press play again, but this time close your eyes. It sounds just like a lawn mower, doesn’t it? I’m not just being purposefully stupid here; this thing sounds like an old lawn mower, not an iconic racer from the 1950s. You’d expect to see a John Deere swinging around the corner when you heard that exhaust note approaching, certainly not a track-prepped Ferrari.

We know that not all four-cylinder engines sound this unpleasant, so it’s certainly possible for Ferrari to produce a sweeter note with so many cylinders. Well, this isn’t just any inline four – it’s a Tipo 129 engine – and it’s designed with one thing in mind: racing.

In the 1950s, Ferrari acquired the talents of Aurelio Lampredi to help build a range of reliable, powerful four-cylinder engines. One of these was the Tipo 129 you see in the video above, a buzzy, fast-revving inline-four with high compression and a powerful 280 horsepower. Fuel is fed through a duo of 58 DCOA/3 Weber carburetors, plus a twin-cam dry-sump design.

Now hot but road-oriented inline-fours have to sound appealing: no one is going to buy an Abarth that sounds like a lawn mower. Therefore, the exhaust has been tuned and adjusted for the perfect soundtrack, while still complying with the various rules and regulations.

The 857, on the other hand, was not held back by such limitations. The exhaust gases were simply routed to help the gases escape as quickly as possible; the route is essentially a straight pipe with Ferrari side exit. Open headers and straight pipes can provide performance benefits, but they don’t always provide the best idle performance.

No matter how unappealing the old 857 racer sounds while idling, it’s still a classic Ferrari, and one with a serious racing pedigree. So don’t think that an uncomfortable soundtrack means you can get your hands on a 1950s Ferrari on the cheap. It’s actually the opposite, as legendary examples of the 857 change hands for millions of dollars. In a recent notable sale, one of four 857 Sports fetched $5.35 million at a Gooding Christie’s auction. It was recently restored and raced with great success by drivers, including none other than Caroll Shelby.

But rest assured, if you manage to save the necessary $5 million or $6 million, and you fancy an old-school racing Ferrari, it doesn’t have to sound like an old lawn mower. The trick seems to be simply to keep the revs up, as evidenced by the 3.0-liter inline-4 750 Monza pictured here:

Rather than an old garden tool, the Ferrari-Lampredi engine, as it works its way through the upper reaches of the rev range, sounds like an angry wasp – exactly the soundtrack you’d want from such a car.