The terrifying sound of an angry German-built AMG engine screaming past you on the motorway may soon be a thing of the past thanks to new European vehicle noise regulations.
It was during an interview with Motoring that the head of product planning for compact AMG cars revealed that the changes were on the way across all vehicles, in all markets.
"It’s coming from the European regulations. We can [design specific exhausts] but it’s too expensive for every market to do it, it’s pretty difficult," Bastian Bogenschutz said.
The regulations that have been put in place by the European Union measure the sound of a car in its loudest drive mode. Because of this, manufacturers aren't able to design systems that are quiet 90% of the time, but open up when needed.
To upheave performance car enthusiasts that love that iconic AMG exhaust note, Bogenschutz revealed that they are working on piping more of the engine noise into the cabin, but we're not too sure that their approach is going to please everyone.
"The regulations were getting pretty difficult for the sound to just come from the exhaust system. So we added the AMG pure performance sound, there we take the real sound from the exhaust system, the pulsation of the real sound and move it inside the car. It works together with the exhaust system."
This ultimately means that buyers will have to use the aftermarket if they want to achieve the same level of noise that they're used to. But who knows, with all the pops, bangs, and crackles that these make, they might be banned too.