[Petrol Head]

I removed my sound tube today. The existence of such nonsense tells me either 5 year olds come to the committee meetings during the design and engineering process or the engineers felt the Alpha chassis is too refined so they wanted to let some intake manifold air into the cabin. And send it through a fake air motor to give it some extra ooph.

Oy vay.

If they wanted more engine noise in the cabin why not decrease the amount of sound insulation in the fire wall and A-pillars? I get they wanted to bring all the feels of the old muscle cars and 1st and 2nd gen big block Camaros back but all that stuff should be done naturally. They even went so far as to cast the engine block cover with the bolt holes to receive the bolts for the air motor.

The parts, labor time on the assembly line to install, and special casting form all combined to probably cost GM $500/Camaro for a frivolous part that really serves no purpose. They could have either passed the savings on to us or saved it themselves. Multiply that by the number of Camaros built and that’s a sizable cost savings for the company.

After driving it with the windows up, radio off, and HVAC blower on low, you get a real sense of how well engineered the Alpha chassis really is. And you can still hear the exhaust when you hammer it in all driving modes, even in stealth mode. In fact, Id say you even hear the exhaust better when you hammer it now. You just don’t have the rumble of the intake manifold air now, which is fine. When cruising the cabin is perfectly quiet with zero rattles.

[2SS Capt]

Originally Posted by Petrol Head

I removed my sound tube today. The existence of such nonsense tells me either 5 year olds come to the committee meetings during the design and engineering process or the engineers felt the Alpha chassis is too refined so they wanted to let some intake manifold air into the cabin. And send it through a fake air motor to give it some extra ooph.

Oy vay.

If they wanted more engine noise in the cabin why not decrease the amount of sound insulation in the fire wall and A-pillars? I get they wanted to bring all the feels of the old muscle cars and 1st and 2nd gen big block Camaros back but all that stuff should be done naturally. They even went so far as to cast the engine block cover with the bolt holes to receive the bolts for the air motor.

The parts, labor time on the assembly line to install, and special casting form all combined to probably cost GM $500/Camaro for a frivolous part that really serves no purpose. They could have either passed the savings on to us or saved it themselves. Multiply that by the number of Camaros built and that’s a sizable cost savings for the company.

After driving it with the windows up, radio off, and HVAC blower on low, you get a real sense of how well engineered the Alpha chassis really is. And you can still hear the exhaust when you hammer it in all driving modes, even in stealth mode. In fact, Id say you even hear the exhaust better when you hammer it now. You just don’t have the rumble of the intake manifold air now, which is fine. When cruising the cabin is perfectly quiet with zero rattles.

As of the mid-2020 model year the sound tube no longer comes from the factory... My 2020 2SS ordered in November and delivered in late January did not have a sound tube...

[Aragorn]

I’ve tried really hard to hear sound tube engine sound and failed every time...

[nancygrl]

The whole thing, from intake elbow to firewall, is sitting on a shelf in the garage. 1st thing I did when I got my ride home was delete the sound tube.

[Drags1998]

I just took Mine off the other day, What a waste of Money!!!!!!!!!! Its to bad that GM has stooped so low as to have to go this root to Make people think That they have something that they DON'T

[LT4Greg]

I’m damn glad my ZL1 doesn’t have one! My 2016 2SS had one that I wanted to remove when I installed the Cold Air Inductions CAI but decided it wasn’t worth the effort.

[Warrior102]

My car came with the GM cold air kit installed (makes lots of intake noise), so I never noticed the sound tube but I did remove it after reading a thread on it here. This is not a Lexus as far as road/engine noise is by a mile, curious why they thought it was necessary. Some manufacturers pipe engine noise through the audio system, so theres that.

[Zaqwert6]

No way that all costs $500, lol. $12-$15 tops, in a production setting.

[arpad_m]

Originally Posted by Petrol Head

I removed my sound tube today. The existence of such nonsense tells me either 5 year olds come to the committee meetings during the design and engineering process or the engineers felt the Alpha chassis is too refined so they wanted to let some intake manifold air into the cabin. And send it through a fake air motor to give it some extra ooph.

Oy vay.

If they wanted more engine noise in the cabin why not decrease the amount of sound insulation in the fire wall and A-pillars? I get they wanted to bring all the feels of the old muscle cars and 1st and 2nd gen big block Camaros back but all that stuff should be done naturally. They even went so far as to cast the engine block cover with the bolt holes to receive the bolts for the air motor.

The parts, labor time on the assembly line to install, and special casting form all combined to probably cost GM $500/Camaro for a frivolous part that really serves no purpose. They could have either passed the savings on to us or saved it themselves. Multiply that by the number of Camaros built and that’s a sizable cost savings for the company.

After driving it with the windows up, radio off, and HVAC blower on low, you get a real sense of how well engineered the Alpha chassis really is. And you can still hear the exhaust when you hammer it in all driving modes, even in stealth mode. In fact, Id say you even hear the exhaust better when you hammer it now. You just don’t have the rumble of the intake manifold air now, which is fine. When cruising the cabin is perfectly quiet with zero rattles.

The story of the sound tube is interesting, the idea came from experimenting with a washing machine discharge hose to funnel some intake sound into the cabin, because the sound engineer thought the cabing was too quiet. The whole thing must only cost them a couple bucks to manufacture, you shouldn't think this was some large budget R&D item

I have a 45-minute BBC documentary on the 6th gen Camaro I'd grabbed from youtube before it got pulled (who knows why) if you're interested: https://www.dropbox.com/s/u0s3pe91m1...ISODE.mp4?dl=1

[Bosse'sBoss]

I removed the sponge from inside the tube, and really did not noticed additional sound from the engine bay

[Joshinator99]

Originally Posted by Zaqwert6

No way that all costs $500, lol. $12-$15 tops, in a production setting.

This probably isn’t far from the truth. Just a few pieces of cheap plastic really. Taking it off is a no-brainer.

[Petrol Head]

Originally Posted by 2SS Capt

As of the mid-2020 model year the sound tube no longer comes from the factory... My 2020 2SS ordered in November and delivered in late January did not have a sound tube...

Well good, someone came to their senses.

[Petrol Head]

Originally Posted by Aragorn

I’ve tried really hard to hear sound tube engine sound and failed every time...

Yeah you can hear the difference, especially with the windows rolled up.

Just to be clear I wasn't against the rumble itself, I'm against frivolous parts being made and installed to amplify it (and somewhat fake generate it with an air motor). Either build the car to where you get the rumble in the interior naturally or don't. Engineering a great chassis that eliminates engine sound, then feeding it back in with additional parts is absolutely useless and wasteful engineering.

[Petrol Head]

Originally Posted by nancygrl

The whole thing, from intake elbow to firewall, is sitting on a shelf in the garage. 1st thing I did when I got my ride home was delete the sound tube.

Yeah at first I was trying to figure out what the hell it was.