Last month, somebody... pulled a fuse on the Mustang EcoBoost and we all found out about its fake engine noise, or Active Noise Control, to use the Blue Oval’s words. Now we have the chance to dig deeper into the aural side of the four-cylinder ‘Stang and it’s all thanks to the aftermarket world.
While playing with their five-way ECU map AccessPORT, these guys discovered changing the map slots activates the artificial sound of the pony car. They’ve released the adjacent clip, whose soundtrack allows us to sample the various tunes the EcoBoost Mustang has to offer, from idle to about 5,000 revs.
After Road & Track’s Jason Cammisa pulled fuse #27, the stereo and (now we know why) the engine went quiet. Subsequently, Ford started talking on this, offering us more details on the aural side of this controversial pony.
The Active Noise Control has two main roles
The Active Noise Control was apparently introduced to serve two functions. The engineers wanted a more refined Mustang for 2015, so the systems cancels out some of the exterior noise. Then there’s the obvious “va-va-voom” effect. The feature can’t be turned off, so as long as you want radio in your car, you’ll also get this.
Oh well, at least you could try to upgrade the soundtrack - since the feature is built into the head unit of the Mustang EcoBoost, changing the audio system on the car would also determined the engine to “sound” differently.
Why the Mustang should have said “no” to this
The EcoBoost Mustang isn’t the first performance car to come with an artificial voice for the powertrain and yet the ‘Stang should’ve used a different approach if you ask us. Given the spirit of this pony, Ford could’ve simply tuned the exhaust for a nice, balanced soundtrack. The EcoBoost ins’t your track-tuned Stang, so it will be driven by a wide variety of people, some of which are not exactly fans of a rumbling exhaust, but a compromise could have been found.
Since we’re stuck with this, we’re expecting to see tuners come up with custom audio schemes for the ‘Stang. As we’ve learned while testing the Renault Clio RS 200 EDC, that won’t make it any less fake, but at least we can have some extra fun in the process.
In his quest to bring you the most impressive automotive creations, Andrei relies on learning as a superpower. There's quite a bit of room in the garage that is this aficionado's heart, so factory-condition classics and widebody contraptions with turbos poking through the hood can peacefully coexist. Full profile
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