I make my Fiat Panda sound like a supercar with this £30 gadget
While the world obsesses over silent electric cars, there are still plenty of us who love the sound of a petrol engine. Especially something like a throbbing V8. The trouble is, my daily driver is a 1.1-litre Fiat Panda. And it doesn't really sound like it's got a throbbing V8. In fact, it sounds a bit wheezy and pathetic. Because that's what it is.
Of course, I didn't buy it for its exhaust note, I bought it because it was frugal, practical, and it costs a pittance to tax.
But what if I could have the best of both worlds? What if I could have a pint-sized city car that sounds like some sort of Lamborghini?
I recently stumbled upon a gadget that claims to be able to sweep you into this ideal scenario, by translating your engine's revs into a synthesised sound, which is piped through your stereo.
It's called a "Wrumer" and I'm going to guess the "W" is pronounced as a German-style "V". It costs just £32.90 and it caused a bit of a sensation on Tik Tok, appearing to transform the sound made by mundane cars into muscle cars. I couldn't resist testing one out.
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It's basically a small device that plugs in to your car's OBD2 port. This is a socket all cars built after around 2004 will have tucked away somewhere, and many cars built after 1996 have them too. It's basically an interface that connects to your ECU, and the Wrumer device just plugs in. It's a bit like a Scart plug, if you can remember those.
Once it's in, you connect it to a smartphone app via Bluetooth and, that's it, you're ready to go. You load up the app, select a sound from the list, and drive.
Your smartphone will then use engine data to synchronise a manufactured engine sound. Connect your phone to a car stereo - through an AUX lead works best - and it'll play the engine sound through the speakers.
I'll get something straight right now. You're not going to trick anyone into thinking you've had a V8 engine installed in your family car. It's not that good. It sounds a bit too synthetic, and even if you don't use a laggy Bluetooth connection there's a very slight delay.
But it is really good fun. The app responds to every input you make on your accelerator and even blips of the throttle are perfectly timed and turned into something that sounds completely different.
There's some great sound options - German V8, muscle car, Italian V10 and even Nissan Skyline, and Wrumer says more are on the way soon.
If you want to really make your passengers laugh you can select lawnmower, spaceship, airplane or even the hilarious "tractor". And if your mother-in-law gets bored of engine sounds, she'll love the perfectly tuneful "farting" effect. That's not a guarantee.
I do need to emphasise, this is all just a bit of fun. Don't expect it to sound like anything other than a silly electronic effect and certainly keep in mind that you can only hear it inside the car. So forget pulling up at the lights and revving your Fiesta up, expecting the guy on the Harley Davidson next to you to be impressed.
But for the price you pay, I think it's just such a joyous little gadget. And what a great stocking filler for petrolheads who already have the ultimate car cleaning kit, a lovely yet reasonably priced car vacuum set or even a Supercar adult colouring book under the tree.
The nice people at Wrumer say it isn't ready to work with electric cars yet, which is a real shame, because that's a potentially fascinating application for this technology.
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Electric cars are fabulous things to drive, but their lack of any sound makes them completely soul-less. Some manufacturers are playing around with synthetic engine sounds, but if Wrumer finds a way to retrofit such a system, it could be a bit of a game-changer.
In the meantime though, I'm thoroughly enjoying pretending I'm popping to the shops in a V12 supercar.
I might never own an Aston Martin, but at least I can make my little Fiat sound like one. Well, sort of.
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