Renault F1 engine playing God Save the Queen
Why Hacker News recommends it
Treated as a favorite hack and a go-to example in threads about machines playing music.
What it is
A short clip of a Renault F1 engine playing God Save the Queen by precisely controlling its RPM, recorded at Goodwood. It demonstrates how finely the drivetrain can be controlled.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2015 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Recommends tdicola · 2015-03 · on “Dot matrix printer playing “Eye of the Tiger” [video]”
My favorite version of this hack is Renault changing the RPM of their F1 engine to play God Save The Queen: [this video]
Recommends wastedhours · 2020-10 · on “Honda quits F1, invests in carbon-free tech instead”
I once walked the footbridge over the hillclimb at Goodwood during the Festival of Speed as a V10 F1 car went underneath. Was something else entirely. Seeing the musical demos the Renault team used to do was always interesting too - if you haven't heard an F1 car play God Save The Queen [0] it's a great watch (and a reminder about how controllable they are). [0] [this video]
Cites paddy_m · 2019-03 · on “Tone.js – A framework for making interactive music in the browser”
The examples were a lot of fun to play with. Nice work. I was thinking earlier today of creating an F1 engine note simulator. I would want to play with the number of cylinders, v angle, crank offset (v8 normal crank/180 crank) and maybe some kind of exhaust system variables (tuned length, crossover pipe), and of course RPM. I don't know where to start, could you point me at the type of programming I would want to look at to figure out how to do this? Here is an f1 car engine playing God Save the Queen [1], sounds atrocious, but still cool. [1] [this video]
Cites qbasic_forever · 2022-06 · on “The Floppotron 3.0”
> Next trick...turn a Tesla into a musical instrument via the motor drives. Renault did it some years ago to demonstrate how much control they have on their F1 engine drivetrain: [this video]
Cites NextHendrix · 2023-11 · on “Tesla Normal Operating Sounds”
[this video] Maybe this is what you're referring to. There are similar examples where people do this with old disk drives and printers too.
Cites cromulent · 2024-09 · on “Let your mower sing Happy Birthday for your loved ones”
Yeah I am guessing it is from the motor RPM pitch but I would like to find out. The Renault F1 engine could famously play tunes this way. [this video]