Byron compares the 1984 Rabbit GTI's exhaust start-up noise to his 2013 Dodge Challenger's and that of previous contestants.
TranscriptBYRON: Hey, guys, it's Byron. We're back with yet another installment of "Are You Louder Than a Dodge Challenger?" Because we don't have anything better to call it. You are sitting on top of my Challenger as we speak. I'm about to set up the sound meter behind this 1984 Volkswagen Rabbit, not Golf, Rabbit GTI.
So this is out of the Volkswagen Heritage Collection. It's normally stored on display. It even came with a little placard telling me what it is, as if I didn't already know. This car is as old as I am, and much louder, as it turns out. So this might actually be our best contestant yet for beating my stock 2013 Challenger SRT8 in terms of exhaust startup noise. It's entirely arbitrary, but we love it anyway. And it's an excuse to listen to this old thing one more time before they come pick it up. So let's get started.
[ENGINE REVS]
OK, so this 1984 Volkswagen Rabbit GTI with its mighty 1.8 liter eight valve engine making a whopping 90 horsepower tipped our scale here at 80.4 decibels. That's loud. Considering that just about everything else we've tested has been quieter than the Challenger by a decent amount, this is a noisy little bugger. And you probably heard it in the actual startup footage. That exhaust is not silent. But we'll check it against the numbers in our previous posts and see where we stand.
All right, hey, guys. Back inside, and I've run the numbers on our latest challenger to the Challenger. The 1984 Volkswagen Rabbit GTI whew, came in at 80.4 decibels. I said earlier when I was outside, that that might actually be in contention for loudest. But actually, that's in third place now behind the Alpha Romeo Giula Quadrifoglio we had a few weeks ago, and the reigning champion, which is my personal 2013 Dodge Challenger.
So it puts it in pretty decent company. And it's one of the only three we've had so far to register above 80 decibels on the sound meter app. So that's not bad. Considering that it's a tiny little 1.8 liter engine up against some pretty colossal modern power plants, it's pretty loud, especially for stock. So kudos to the '84 Rabbit GTI for getting into third place.
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