Mercedes' F1 Megaphone Exhaust Trick Looked Goofy, Didn't Work

In response to low noise complaints, Mercedes developed a megaphone exhaust for its Formula 1 cars.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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In response to the massive dissent from Formula 1’s top promoters and showmen, some of the Formula 1 teams have been scheming on ways to improve the muffled sound of the current F1 engines. Mercedes’ first attempt seems to have been a failure.

After Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, Nico Rosberg piloted his W05 car around the track, fitted with a flared “megaphone” exhaust designed to amplify sound. Keen observers in the grandstands didn’t notice a difference in total sound output and Rosberg was less than impressed with the solution.

“As a team, we want to – for the sport – make things louder, so we need to try some other solutions, because this was not the right solution,” said Rosberg. “Unfortunately it didn’t change anything.” 

The charge for revamping the sound comes from Ron Walker, the man behind the Australian Grand Prix, who commits that the loss of screeching engines will hurt fan turnout to the events. Check out the video below for a comparison between the new and old F1 resonance.

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[via Telegraph]

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