Giving up on combustion engines will mean future Ferrari models could lose a big part of their character. The scream of high-revving eight- and twelve-cylinder engines is legendary and an important part of the driving experience, but since the Italian manufacturer will be forced by regulation to go electric this decade, it will have to look for ways to keep its cars noisy and characterful.
CarBuzz says it found a Ferrari patent filing with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for a system that appears quite similar to the Fratzonic chambered exhaust showcased on the Dodge Charger Daytona SRT EV. Dodge says this system is capable of generating up to 126 decibels of noise (as much as the firm’s V8s), and the sound itself changes depending on throttle position, speed and other factors.
It uses a speaker and several resonance chambers to achieve the sound that you got to hear when the concept debuted. And the sound is blasted out of a flat trumpet-like outlet that spans almost the entire width of the rear bumper, making the vehicle feel as close to a gas-burning muscle car as possible.
Ferrari would have its system play enhanced and modified versions of the sounds the vehicle will make, so expect it to have an enhanced and spiced up version of the sound made by its electric motors. And thanks to a resonator placed near the vehicle’s transmission housing, the sound would become deeper and presumably more similar to a what an internal combustion-engined car’s sound.
Capturing, enhancing and playing the sound produced by electric motors seems like a much better fit for a Ferrari than, say, BMW’s approach – the Bavarians hired movie soundtrack composer Hans Zimmer to design the sound signature for its EVs, which is fine in a regular car, but some would definitely complain if Ferrari adopted a similar solution, which would be seen as less “pure” than just boosting the volume of sounds it already makes.
Ferrari has no intentions of implementing this solution for any of its current electrified models. We expect to see it featured on the first fully-electric production Ferrari, which should be unveiled in 2025.
