Before we get bogged down in the speed of sound, lets take a look at the sound of speed. Can you pin point it? What does speed sound like to you? A car goes by and you say “boy, that sounds fast”, but was it, was it really the sound of speed?

The only time when I really feel the true force of the sound of speed is when I’m watching motorsport and I’m really in amongst it. Hearing the roar of a Formula 1 engine, or a Gran Turismo car tear by, you can then fully appreciate what these drivers are putting themselves through. Matthew Layton is a radio presenter for infamous UK race circuit Silverstone and in this recording he’s caught the excitement and sound of speed at a race track.

Matthew uses SoundCloud to upload his field recordings and interviews from down by the track side, he even managed to catch up with F1 champion Sebastian Vetel and ask him about his terrible taste in music!

Is this not fast enough for you? Does this not define speed? How about a fighter jet, that fast enough? ABC Open caught the sound of a McDonnell Douglas FA-18 Hornet on their account which is collecting, curating and publishing local contributions from the local Australian ABC regional audiences.

Recorded by Evan Croker at Wings over the Illawarra in March 2011, here’s the sound of speed from the air!

But lets get down to the real question. What is the speed of sound? The speed of sound is the distance travelled during a unit of time by a soundwave transmitted through an elastic medium…. Got that…?

Well, here’s the sound which etiennedeleflie collected to demonstrate this…

That’s all for this week’s Found Sounds! Tune in next week for more crazy sounds from the ‘Cloud.