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Comment by startupsfail | Hacker News Reader

Hi, I’m a longtime student of the American culture and I think the primary reason why Americans love it so much is because it temporarily masks their tinnitus and not because it melts their cold hearts.

Approximately 10 percent of the U.S. adult population — over 25 million Americans — experience some form of tinnitus. And an even larger percentage is suffering from hearing impairments.

Broken mufflers and loud engines mask the tinnitus sounds and finally they can relax. This is also the reason why they prefer to hang their Freeways in the air, in the middle of the city. And why their cafes are unbearably loud with the sound of refrigerators competing with the loud music.

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Americans like it because when you sit in a big V8 and smash the accelerator it jolts you forward and pins you in the seat while the engine is roaring like a lion. It's fun, like going down a hill in a rollercoaster. That's really all there is to it. Hearing it makes you think of the fun yourself.

this is actually a really great comment. Mercedes is pivoting to the crossplane kinda for this reason (the american market.) it makes a V6 sound like a V8, keeps their engine design euro spec compliant, and helps deliver torque which their twelve SUV lineup desperately needs considering most weigh in at over two short tonnes. crossplane also helps mask turbo whine which most red-blooded americans associate with their massive trucks, not sport SUV offerings.

Mercedes is running cross-plane cranks in their V6 engines because V6s are cross-plane out of necessity. That applies to all engines with cylinder counts which are not exponents of 2.

A "dinky", "small-displacement", "underpowered" European or Japanese sports car will do the same job. There are many replacements for displacement. The American preference for big, heavy vehicles with big, heavy engines is just aesthetic.

You can't get the sort of low end torque with a turbocharged i4 that you can with a large displacement V8 even if they both have the same peak horsepower. More low end torque give a better throttle response and different characteristics than more high revving engines.

So why do most Americans hate or at least dislike electric cars then? Which does the same, even more so?

Who says Americans hate electric cars? Teslas are selling quite well here.

But you have to realize America is enormous--its over 2600 miles to drive end to end. Our highway system and infrastructure isn't setup to completely replace gas or diesel with electric for long term trips. It's getting much better, but I suspect reluctance to get an electric car in the US primarily comes down to cost and range anxiety.

Teslas have great acceleration too!

Why do you think Americans suffer from tinnitus more than other nationalities?

Maybe longtime students of the American culture speak very loudly.

Because of all the loud cross plane exhausts.

I'm not sure if this is a joke or not. I know lots of young people, myself included, who don't have tinnitus and also like V8s or V-twins motorcycles in my case.

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