
For Ford employee Steve von Foerster, it started with a neighbour's call to the police to request he keep car noise down.
This was the scenario which led him to come up with Good Neighbour Mode which will enable Mustang drivers to schedule a full throated roar when they won't bother anyone or tone it down a bit to ensure they stay on friendly terms with nearby families.
"I love the sound of the V8 engine but it can be loud and you can't annoy people like that in your neighbourhood.
"I thought, 'There has to be a way to give people more control over the engine's sound.'" said von Foerster, a former engineer who leads Ford's user experience team in product development in the US.
According to a recent poll by Ranker.com, loud engine revving ranks among the most annoying noises neighbours make, alongside other common nuisances including power tools, barking dogs and band practice. Only early morning lawn mowing is more despised.
Some sports cars already offer active exhaust systems that can be turned on and off but, Ford claims, the Mustang's Good Neighbour Mode, or Quiet Start, is the first to allow times to be scheduled. Drivers toggle through a menu in the instrument cluster to select the sound they want.
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By GlobalDataFor example, between 8pm and 7am, drivers can keep the peace by scheduling their car to start, minus the roar.
Both new Quiet Exhaust mode and Quiet Start features will be part of the available active valve performance exhaust system on the latest 2018 Mustang, which automatically adjusts the decibel level of the exhaust note according to the different drive modes, from Normal and Sports up to Track mode that emits a satisfying 82 decibel growl.
"Sounds upwards of 80 decibels can start to irritate people; some of the most annoying sounds imaginable, such as a coffee grinder, or lawnmower, have decibel levels in the high eighties," said Matt Flis, Ford exhaust development engineer. "With Quiet Start activated the decibel level of the new Mustang GT drops by about 10 decibels, to a much more comfortable 72 decibels."
Ford has sold almost 30,000 Mustangs in Europe since the sports car finally went on sale across the region – and with RHD models too – for the first time in over 50 years, early in 2015.