Good neighbors can now turn the roar of their Mustang GT's V8 engine into a purr

There are many reasons to want to get behind the wheel of a Mustang GT, but arguably one of the best is experiencing the roar of its V8 engine first-hand. In a strange move, Mustang has developed a method of affecting the volume of the exhaust, and it’s not making it louder.

Quiet Mode, also dubbed ‘Good Neighbor Mode’ reduces the volume of the 5.0-liter V8 engine by 10 decibels to about the volume of a standard domestic dishwasher. It does this using a system of valves, and can be controlled from the Mustang’s control cluster. 

As you might have guessed from its unofficial title, Quiet Mode was created to deal with the issue of the powerful engine not being as fun for the people who live next door as it is for you. 

Vroom vroom

The inspiration apparently came out of an actual situation the former head of vehicle engineering at Ford, Steve von Foerster, found himself in, where his neighbors called the cops on him because of the noise disturbance from all the vroom-vrooming early in the morning.

In order to save you facing the same problem, you can set a timer for the hours during which you want to throttle the car’s volume. And don't worry that your stallion will be permanently silenced – once quiet time is over you can crank up the volume again, and choose from sound modes including Normal, Sport, and Track modes.

Andrew London

Andrew London is a writer at Velocity Partners. Prior to Velocity Partners, he was a staff writer at Future plc.