Noise. A blessing or a curse. A delight or an irritation. For many race and rally fans, it’s one part of the essence of what makes motorsport so appealing. You can count Toyota’s chairman and former CEO for the past 13 years among their number. “She said noise, but to my ears it is more like a lullaby!” laughs Akio Toyoda, great-grandson of the company’s founder and inspiration behind the multi-championship-winning Gazoo Racing, as he picks up the misplaced nuance of his translator’s words when asked about the prospects of battery electric motorsport in the vein of Formula E and Extreme E doing away with one of the sport’s more visceral appeals.
“In my view sound is a critical part of motorsport,” he continues. “In the case of Le Mans, where there are many cars circulating in the same space for a lot of laps, maybe there is less need to focus on this. But when I think about the World Rally Championship, with spectators stood in a forest or out in the dust and sand, what is the appeal of a silent vehicle approaching you? The excitement of hearing a car before you see it is a very important part of enjoying the sport.”
You can be cynical or accepting
