The best tunnels for engine note appreciation

Nope, not an early April Fool’s. Alfa really did tour the country in the glorious-sounding, quad-exhaust Stelvio Quadrifoglio – tough job for someone there – in order to rank the top 10 tunnels for drivers, based on quality of noise from inside the Stelvio when the loud pedal was pushed. And as we well know, the 510PS (380kW) 2.9-litre biturbo V6 does indeed make a glorious racket when provoked.

You can hear the results from each of the 10 tunnels around the country in this link but, to be frank, don’t bother. They are curiously underwhelming. The people who did the “testing” – experts from the Sandy Brown acoustic consultancy – might be highly qualified sound engineers used to working in the Royal Albert Hall, but on this evidence it is doubtful they know how to get the best out of an Italian V6 (maybe the traffic got in the way? – ed).

So what came out on top? The 658-metre long Penmaenbach tunnel in North Wales topped the Alfa Romeo Sound Tunnel Index, singled out for its one-way traffic to each of the tunnel’s twin bores, an excellent road surface and a distinctive U-shaped profile.

The Saltash tunnel in Cornwall came second, the Beaminster tunnel in Dorset third and, closer to home, the tunnel on the A3 at Hindhead made fourth spot.

Even closer to home, and the best tunnel for exhaust noise by far, was not included in the aural audit. Now we may be biased here, but is there really a louder, more echo-ey and evocative place to give a thoroughbred engine its head than the short-but-very-sweet tunnel under the Motor Circuit here at Goodwood? We think not.