Toyota’s naturally aspirated V-10 from the LFA was a one-and-done affair since the 4.8-liter engine was sadly never used in another model. However, at one point, the sweet music made by the 1LR-GUE, co-developed with Yamaha, was baked into a normal car. It was more of an experiment to discover how the high-revving, even-firing engine’s roar would sound in something other than a supercar.
Assistant Manager Shinichi Sano of Lexus’ Vehicle Performance Development Department No.1 recalls the result was less than ideal: “We even experimented with replicating the LFA sound in a normal car, but it was just plain comical. A fast sound, with too much acoustic pressure, will only make a slow car seem even slower. We realized that the LFA’s tone and acoustic pressure only fit because they are backed up by its acceleration.”
The disclosure was made for the Toyota Times magazine as part of a longer series about the science of sound. In a previous episode, Toyota dropped a three-hour video just with the Lexus LFA’s V-10 engine sounds. Sadly, we don’t get to hear how the engineers faked that soundtrack in a regular car, but we can imagine how ridiculous it would sound in a Corolla or a RAV4.
Another experiment that didn’t end well was when Toyota tried to make a three-cylinder car sound as if it had a bigger four-banger: “To give an example of a past failure, at one point, we talked about reproducing a four-cylinder sound in a vehicle with a three-cylinder engine, but the three-cylinder and four-cylinder sounds interfered with each other to produce something you couldn’t even call a sound. That just doesn’t work.”
Toyota is working on a new four-cylinder engine for performance cars. We could imagine someday replacing the three-cylinder mill from the GR Yaris and GR Corolla hot hatches and the Lexus LBX Morizo RR crossover. Codenamed “G20E,” the 2.0-liter unit was seen last month in a mid-engine GR Yaris Concept M at the Tokyo Auto Salon, where it was suggested it could power the reborn Celica/MR2. The new 2.0-liter engine will push out over 400 horsepower, a full 100 hp more than the smaller 1.5-liter G16E three-cylinder unit.
For a different engine with double the number of cylinders, the new Lexus LFR (name not confirmed) has been spotted testing while making brawny V-8 noises. It’s expected to break cover later this year as a street-legal equivalent of Toyota’s new GT3 race car. Yusuke Nakayama, assistant manager at Lexus’ Vehicle Performance Development Department No.1, argues it’s wrong to simulate an engine’s sound by making it seem like it’s something else:
“It would be strange to hear a car with an eight-cylinder engine sounding like a three-cylinder machine, and vice versa. The right sound depends on the given engine. Our basic approach is to employ tones that evoke the driving power of that particular vehicle.”
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