What creates a vehicle's 'soul' or 'character'?

[Mr. Dazzle]

Motorcycles don't do that. What you hear is the actual exhaust note, in case you weren't aware.

Yes and no. It's an actual exhaust note thats been carefully tuned to sound as good as they can get it. Then had pops and cracks added in totally unnecessarily. They may even have have put some carefully placed resonators in the inlet system to direct noise up at your head.

Its all the same thing innit?

Porsche just have more space in the car and money in the punter's wallet to play with. They'll sell you an unlawful loud exhaust if you want one. Motorcycles aren't immune to such nonsense.

[wheelnut]

You're only saying that cause you don't have to maintain it any more

It’s probably the only vehicle I’ve cared about enough to actually maintain it myself.

[mangocrazy]

Motorcycles don't do that. What you hear is the actual exhaust note, in case you weren't aware.

Yes and no. It's an actual exhaust note thats been carefully tuned to sound as good as they can get it. Then had pops and cracks added in totally unnecessarily. They may even have have put some carefully placed resonators in the inlet system to direct noise up at your head.

Its all the same thing innit?

Porsche just have more space in the car and money in the punter's wallet to play with. They'll sell you an unlawful loud exhaust if you want one. Motorcycles aren't immune to such nonsense.

Good grief.

It's an ersatz, confected copy of an exhaust note (car) compared to an actual, real exhaust note (motorcycle).

If you can't see the difference between the two, then I really can't help you.

[Mr. Dazzle]

The Porsche is the actual engine sound, just "repeated" to make it louder for the driver.

[KungFooBob]

Someone reversed a Tesla past my office window last week. I hid under the desk, I thought Mars was invading.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Someone reversed a Tesla past my office window last week. I hid under the desk, I thought Mars was invading.

BMW have got Hans Zimmer working on theirs!

[Yorick]

I've just read several pages of the best bullshit I've seen in all the days of VD/TRC/RTTL

Plastic and metal has no soul. It's just weird owners trying to claim something for them self. A car or bike is just as important to me as the fridge and the washing machine.
If it's stolen, buy a new one. Does the new one come with a replacement soul or a new one? All complete bollox

Some folk need to get a grip. And maybe wear a t-shirt showing their vehicle with a soul badge

[Horse]

What a truly sad state of affairs; people driving round in their top-end Porsches etc. trying desperately to look bad and rad, but daren't fit a rorty exhaust in case they get tugged by the cops. So instead they can make believe they're bad boys and have their ego massaged by some clever algorithms and a sound system.

I'd rather that the sound was directed at the driver (or rider, for that matter) than everyone around them.

[Count Steer]

I've just read several pages of the best bullshit I've seen in all the days of VD/TRC/RTTL

Plastic and metal has no soul. It's just weird owners trying to claim something for them self. A car or bike is just as important to me as the fridge and the washing machine.
If it's stolen, buy a new one. Does the new one come with a replacement soul or a new one? All complete bollox

Some folk need to get a grip. And maybe wear a t-shirt showing their vehicle with a soul badge

I bet you look at great works of art and tell people it's just a bit of canvas with pigment on or it's just a bit of stone that someone has chiselled, it's not really David. By gum, down to earth realists them Yorkshiremen.

Investing inanimate objects with character is what children do and most bikers, happily, have not grown up but just got older.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I don't think vehicles have souls. I think they have character but that's just the difficult to pin down sum of a bunch of technical inputs. The aforementioned Civic had a certain character, but if I replaced it with an identical Civic I think that one would have exactly the same character too.

What we call character is just the total of all the things which go into the design. The manufacturers are pretty good these days at turning hard values of various parameters into this character thing, but it's just a bunch of numbers.

I also reckon a huge part of it is down to your own personal history with the vehicle and bias (either conscious of unconscious). The IL4 thing is a perfect case in point.

[weeksy]

Investing inanimate objects with character is what children do and most bikers, happily, have not grown up but just got older.

Even animate objects, anthropomorphism.
My dog is just a piece of meat with a few electrical/chemical impulses going on in it's head, I could shoot it right now and get an equally good one later today.

Weirdly, if any of us actually did do that, my money would be on you
.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Well I'm certainly not gonna shoot iccy's dog, that's just mean.

[Skub]

I don't think vehicles have souls.

It depends on how you interpret 'soul'.

Even with regard to humans,the soul is likely mythical,but many would argue differently and ultimately,like this thread, there can be no proof.

Setting aside the spiritual aspect of 'soul',not applicable in this case,the word can also be used to describe intensity of performance. What made Otis Redding a great soul singer,if it wasn't the intensity of his performance.

Intensity of performance is also a great way of describing some bikes that possess character or soul.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Just call me a reductionist I suppose.

To me the 'soul' of a vehicle is just a convenient short hand for describing the sum total of all it's features and something which can be designed in.

The distinction between thigns which are 'legit' soul and things which are tacked on fakery is, at best, blurred IMO. Adding an exhaust end can to make an engine louder vs. playing the same engine sound through a speaker. Why is one more 'real' than the other? They're both just artificial ways of making an engine unnecessarily louder and the distinction is purely arbitrary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductionism

[Yorick]

I've just read several pages of the best bullshit I've seen in all the days of VD/TRC/RTTL

Plastic and metal has no soul. It's just weird owners trying to claim something for them self. A car or bike is just as important to me as the fridge and the washing machine.
If it's stolen, buy a new one. Does the new one come with a replacement soul or a new one? All complete bollox

Some folk need to get a grip. And maybe wear a t-shirt showing their vehicle with a soul badge

I bet you look at great works of art and tell people it's just a bit of canvas with pigment on or it's just a bit of stone that someone has chiselled, it's not really David.

Most art is just pretentious bollox anyway.

[Wossname]

Your island, Yorick? It's just a volcano sticking out of the sea, with a few beaches made of imported Sahara sand dunes here and there. It's not heaven. But you like it that way - fine.

My bike is a big V-twin which makes a noise I like, and pulls in a way I like. Not like yours. It has a riding position I like, it can do all sorts of things I like in a way I like. Not (to me) like yours. So my bike has a different "character" to yours. But yes - it's just a lump of metal; its various features give it a difference from other bikes, which I would call character, if only for want of a better word.

[Dodgy69]

Being quirky.

[Taipan]

I don't believe vehicles have a soul and I believe character is when something is like a good one, but not quite as good*, giving it character.




*a bit shit...

[JackyJoll]

Character and soul are when it won’t start, yeah?

[JackyJoll]

Potato, potato

Hey that’s copyrighted!