The manufacturer should simply geofence the feature. Essentially all cars have a GPS now. Hyundai can sell the same car in every state, but the feature stops working within the borders of CA or any other state wishing to opt out of intentional noise pollution.
That’s actually an interesting approach to the matter–but I’d be concerned that with tuning chips and whatnot that it would be too easy to turn off the GPS lock for the really determined fucknuts.
There’s nothing to fix. It’s a certified car in California. It’s like saying the car is defective because it can exceed the highest speed possible by a factor of 3.
Guess we’ll all just have to see what happens. You live in California, by any chance? I spent 37 years there and it’s a weird place.
Then you fine the driver for violating noise laws just as would be done for speeding laws.
I agree 100% that deliberately loud exhausts, and the computer-controlled banging and popping after-fires are a scourge. I rode recently in somebody’s Subaru WrX that had been chipped; it banged and popped worse than a Model T every time he let off the throttle. It was a PITA to ride in and a PITA to be around. A pox on all their houses.
Agree that cancelling registration for a factory car is making an example of a powerless citizen when the culprit there is the powerful corporation. And as you said earlier it also seems odd some municipal police department has that power in the first place. I almost suspect confused reporting somewhere along the chain of info from the driver / owner to us.
Here in FL Governor DeSantis made quite a show a few years ago of directing by executive order that no state or local police department is permitted to enforce any vehicle noise ordinances. Incredibly, under Florida’s weird laws, he made that stick.
He was instantly wildly popular with the plastic truck-nuts & coal-rolling crowd as well as the expansion chamber set (can’t say “ricer” anymore) and the straight-pipe Harley set. Philistines the lot of 'em. Our roadside cacophony is a sight (or sound actually) to behold. And not in an admiring way.
He not powerless to only use that mode on the racetrack. Or at least far from civilization.
But where the fun attention seeking in that?
Yes to everything you said. I hate any version of a “tuned” import car, but around here, Subarus are the absolutely worst due to the sheer number of them. Even if you like loud vehicles, that exhaust tune is very distinctive and distinctively bad. When my wife and I are out walking, I call out “Subaru” before one passes us and she cannot figure out how I know (all exhaust noise is the same to her).
We also have tons of domestic loud garbage in the HD and lifted coal-rolling truck flavors. The new moronic popular thing is to lower the rear end of your pseudo-monster truck. Not sure what the fuck that is supposed to do beyond show you have more money than brains. The absolute most moronic trend is to add those fake turbo whistles to your lifted diesel truck’s exhaust. Good god they make a horrible noise. Who the fuck does that?
Well, you can also shave off quite a few pounds by dumping the stock exhaust. Just sayin…
(Funny hijack: I used to race with guys who spent $$$ on titanium nuts and bolts, would drill out rotors and plastic in order to save a few ounces of weight. Then sit around the campfire and drink a six-pack to feed their enormous Beer-guts! 
I’ve seen many signs that say “No Jake Brakes.” Are truck drivers supposed to have them removed before entering a town?
If you don’t use them, nobody knows for sure whether you even have compression brakes. It’s the noise they make that gives them away, and the ordinance on which the sign is based prohibits the use rather than the possession (noise control ordinance rather than anything having to do with vehicle equipment).
You missed the point. The trucks legally have jake brakes. It’s the use of them that is illegal. You wouldn’t pull a truck’s registration for using jake brakes, you’d give the driver a fine for violating noise ordinances.
To complete the loop, a jake brake as typically installed has a toggle switch on the driver’s panel. If on, the jake brake activates w trailing throttle, triggering the distinctive noise. If off, it doesn’t ever trigger and is noiseless. As well as utterly ineffective.
I didn’t miss anything. That’s why I said the ordinance prohibits use rather than possession. Various articles about this case, such as this one on The Drive, argue that’s what should have happened here: he gets ticketed for noise violation and nothing happens to the car’s registration.
The test must be done in the vehicle’s default normal drive mode, however, which was allegedly not done in the case of the California test, despite this being explicitly specified in the relevant standard, SAE J1492. Any mode that “can remain enabled through a power on/off cycle,” can be used for the test. The Elantra N cannot be started in sport or “N” mode, its loudest setting.
So we seem to be talking about an inspector who used the wrong test, either by mistake or because the guy was being an ass.
If the test is codified to be done in standard mode then I would expect a lawsuit. I still think there’s more to this.
If the guy is deliberately driving in a mode that’s illegal on the street then he’s got to be the dumb est person in the world for not switching it to stock mode when the cruiser lights go on.
I’m trying to figure out why a sport mode would backfire when the car is tuned by the computer a gazillion times a minute. Even if the computer adds more timing with your foot in it I would expect it to revert to stock when decelerating.
The pops and backfiring is deliberate. The “real” reason is that when lifting the throttle the gas and air mixture is ignited with the cylinder’s exhaust valve open, which sends pressure to the turbo to keep it spinning. That decreases turbo lag when the driver gets back on the throttle. It also makes a noise.
Unless actually racing, the real (no scare quotes) reason is because some people think it sounds cool. If the car doesn’t have a turbo, or if tuned only for the noise, not to prevent turbo lag, then the only reason to pop is aesthetics.
I had a motorcycle that had a bad carburetor causing it to run rich, and it would pop because unburnt gas was getting into the exhaust. Once the carbs were cleaned and adjusted the pops stopped, the engine ran better, and gas mileage increased.
Indeed. Most performance cars have some sort of burble tune in the software now. It was an optional extra for my old BMW 135i; it’s now stock on my current M240i. Of the four driving modes I have available, it does it most in Sport+ and least in Eco. While I think it’s primarily an aesthetic thing, I do believe the turbo stays spun up better when it’s popping and crackling, but the two sporty modes change so many other things it’s not easy to tell what makes the difference.
Well isn’t that the purpose of a blow off valve? Most turbocharged cars have multiple small turbos or dual scroll turbos to broaden the torque curve.
A blowoff valve is there to keep the turbo from crashing when the throttle closes and the intake pressure has nowhere to go. But that just passively keeps things from spinning down rapidly. A little extra fuel-air charge into the exhaust can active keep the turbo spun up.
Maybe if you’re driving a stick. But if you’re really into speed then you’re using an 8 or 10 speed automatic that keeps it spooled… There really is no reason for this in a modern car. I would expect the computer on a modern turbocharged car to be dialing it back to keep the tires from spinning.