2020 Ford Mustang GT500 Most gearheads enjoy a loud and raucous exhaust. Some of them are more pleasant to the ear than others. An Italian V12 at full trot is an aural delight with few equals, for example. Same goes for the traditional growl of an uncorked American V8 on this side of the pond. With its 700-plus horsepower and aggressive styling choices, Ford’s new GT500 is bound to check a lot of the correct boxes in terms of performance and looks. It also needs to sound right, which is a bigger task for engineers than most people realize. In a sit-down with top brass of the GT500 team, the crew at Road Track found out just how much goes into achieving that perfect exhaust note. At play is an active noise cancellation system, a gee-whiz piece of kit that deploys an armada of microphones and the car’s stereo system to eliminate unwanted noises. It won’t quell the whining noise from your passenger, but it will erase tones and pitches that could ruin the signature V8 bark. At play are something called secondary harmonics, a term which generally refers to the din created by the likes of moving belts or weird induction noises. Once the mics have picked up these offensive sounds, an opposing frequency is played through the Shelby’s speaker system get rid of it. Noise-cancelling is nothing new – in fact, you probably own a set of noise-cancelling headphones – but the way in which Ford is deploying the technology is unique. Instead of taking a blanket approach, the Blue Oval team is selecting very specific sounds to eliminate. This also beats the old-school approach of adding sound deadening, which also muffles the good stuff and adds weight. An interesting tidbit of this system is that it disables itself when someone opens a door. Those who’ve experienced the technology say the difference in sound is vast and much more pleasant with the doors closed. Winding down the windows doesn’t affect anything, though, so GT500 drivers should feel free to do so in every tunnel they
Origin: Ford designed the Shelby GT500’s stereo to help the engine sound perfect