Video: Modern NASCARS with the old-school 'plate' howl

03rd April 2023

Ethan Jupp

Of all the motorsports in the world, we don’t consider NASCAR a discipline where the cars have lost something in terms of their engines and the sound. They’re still massive V8s, there’s still a roar that can and does fill the Daytona bowl. But to die-hard fans, there is a difference between new and old.

Older clips feature cars that howl more, that seem to rev higher, that have a more piercing sound. So what is it? Injector versus carburettor? Higher rev limits? Exhaust designs? None of the above. It’s restrictor plates, in tandem with X-pipes, with the cars that featured them giving that distinctive high-pitch howl without actually revving much beyond 7,000rpm.

Here we have an edit of the modern cars in a 200mph precession but with a plate era enhancement, giving the old-school howl from 20 or so years ago. If NASCAR fans could ask for one thing from the modern cars? It’d be a return to this iconic soundtrack.

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