The 2018 Mustang GT’s Quiet Start mode will be the first of its kind in the automotive industry, and Ford claims the feature’s existence is the responsibility of one of its engineers’ neighbors.
Steve von Foerster, formerly Ford’s head of vehicle engineering, got his inspiration for the feature after his whiny neighbors called the police on him for starting up his Shelby GT350 one morning, according to a press release.
Nicknamed the “Good Neighbor Mode,” Quiet Start allows owners to program certain periods of time, during which the engine will reduce its volume when starting. This is in addition to the Quiet Exhaust mode that lets you quiet your Mustang at the touch of a button.
“I love the sound of the V-8, but it can be loud, and you can’t annoy people like that in your neighborhood,” von Foerster said. “It sounds so cool, but I thought, ‘There has to be a way to give people more control over the engine’s sound.’ ”
Quiet Start is particularly useful late at night or early in the morning, when most people are asleep, though it sounds like the people who live next to von Foerster need a “Good Neighbor Mode” more than the Mustang does.
Even though his GT350 is loud, it’s also road legal. If he had been revving the engine unnecessarily, we could understand their frustration, but calling the cops because he fired it up is pointless — not to mention a waste of the police’s time.
Thumbnail photo via Ford
