It’s one of the big philosophical questions: What should an electric Ferrari sound like? Jimi Hendrix, David Gilmour, or Jimmy Page, according to Antonio Palermo. He’s the guy responsible for sound and vibration on the new Ferrari Elettrica.
Well, not exactly like those legendary guitar heroes, but they’re certainly in the mix. Palermo is a guitarist himself, so the analogy is appropriate. He and his 20-strong team of engineers had two key targets when it came to giving sonic life to the electric Ferrari: They didn’t want to fake it or replicate the sound of an existing Ferrari engine. And it had to be authentic and new.
The solution is fascinating. An accelerometer on the inverter casting on the rear axle picks up the frequencies of the powertrain, which are then amplified in the cabin. Hence, the comparison with the electric guitar, wherein a pickup converts string vibrations into an electrical signal that’s then sent to the amplifier. The very essence of rock ’n’ roll, you could argue, since Les Paul and Leo Fender set the music world spinning on its axis back in the ’50s.
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A combustion engine, of course, causes vibrations and oscillations in the air. That’s as natural as breathing. Are there really sounds trapped inside a metal box worth amplification? Palermo insists that there are.
“You really can think about it like a musical instrument. It has its own timbre,” he explains. “We need to take away the annoying noise, because there’s no point amplifying gear whine, for example. But there are lots of other beautiful frequencies that we can work with and let out. We talk about orchestras when it comes to ICE. Well, there’s a different type of orchestra inside this machine, too.
“Different things happen left to right. You get a different sound depending on how fast the motor is spinning. Maybe we could put an LFO (that’s a low-frequency oscillator and popular in EDM—music ed.) over the top of it and get a ‘wo, wo, wo…’ throbbing sound. But the human brain is very fast at identifying those fake aspects. The pitch will be there, but the timbre will change and this is what connects your brain to what is going on.”
Ferrari calls the process ‘language and connection,’ and ensuring that the EV sounds not just compelling but also authentic was a challenge. “The visibility of the project was at all levels,” Palermo says with a knowing smile. “It took us a long time to reach a consensus. We don’t want a replica and we don’t want to ‘invent’ something. This was key, and this is part of the company culture.
“The first customer for us is our test drivers. We asked them what they thought and if they liked it, then we’d use their response as a kind of shield. Our test drivers would raise their hand if they felt disconnected at any point. We then measured when this might happen. If they liked what we came up with, it gave us confidence that we’re on the right path.”
Eliminating latency is another vital aspect. In other words, the sound has to reach the driver’s ears as soon as it occurs. “It took us a long time to minimise the latency. The latency is below the threshold of human perception, the sound instantaneous,” Palermo confirms.
The team experimented with 50 different pickup points before deciding on a final location. They only needed one because the car’s structure is so torsionally rigid. The resultant sound is also functional. So if you drive the Elettrica like, erm, a real Ferrari—go out all—the noise reaches a ripe crescendo. At steady state motorway speeds, it shuts up. The EV also features something called Torque Shift Engagement, which defines five levels of power and torque accessed via the right-hand shift paddle. The accelerometer picks up on the torque demand, and the soundtrack alters accordingly. It can also differentiate between acceleration and regeneration.
As to what it actually sounds like—from the outside as well as within—Palermo says we’ll find out soon. “The sound we’ve arrived at will reveal itself with nuance, not flamboyance and fireworks.”
NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
