Road racing games such Microsoft’s Project Gotham Racing and Forza bring realism to the digital driving experience by duplicating the sound of squealing tires and the roar of engines.
But what about an electric car? How does it sound? Isn’t the whir of the motor completely different?
Screeching to a halt from 119 miles an hour was a fun way to use electrons, says Tesla owner Tom Burt
These question brought Microsoft game engineers together with Tesla owner Tom Burt for an on-the-track day of recording Burt’s Roadster screeching to a halt from 119 miles an hour.
In a blog entry, Burt says he heavy braking was a fun way to use electrons.
“The brakes got quite hot after three of the 119 mph runs, which ended with hard/threshold braking to slow the car before running out of pavement. The sound they recorded as we blew by at these speeds was fantastic.”
The day began at 7:30 a.m. when sound engineers from Microsoft Game Studios wired the $98,000 car with three large boom microphones suction-cupped to the sides and rear. Two other mics were attached up front over the sway bars near the front tires, and another was placed in the trunk. A final mic went inside the cabin.
Burt said that in addition to the abrupt braking, he performed hard sweeping turns, which generated “good tire chirps at the edge of adhesion (and) then more aggressive skids.”
Finally, “the team asked for ‘longer’ squeal segments, (and) we did tight circles just fast enough to keep the tires howling continuously for 30 seconds or so.”
The motor overheated after several full speed accelerations and the car under-steered, given its stock suspension settings and tire sizes, Burt said. But when it was all over, he was relieved to find he had enough juice in the battery to drive home.
