Thanks for the great feedback guys.
I'm no warbird pilot so I'm completely open on this one. However, I have been around Spits and many other old and new aircraft when they exercise their props and taxi past and the throbbing/flapping sound is definitely missing. Not sure if you'd hear that once you're in the air though.
My experience comes from listening to my old wartime jeep struggling up hills so I'm coming from the same angle as you ATAG_Snapper. However, cheesehawk makes some excellent points and obviously has experience with high powered straight stack engines. It hadn't occurred to me that you might not be able to hear the intake growl when sitting behind such an engine.
For me it's just a gut feel that the application of masses of extra power (while maintaining RPM) should be detectable in terms of sound both in the cockpit and externally. At the moment, having set an RPM value I can move the throttle through a huge range of power values and not hear a single change in the engine (unless RPM changes in the process).
I'd love to hear the views of some real pilots.
Would also be great to hear the views of your Dad cheesehawk....is a massive power increase completely undetectable when sitting behind a big engine like this (unless RPM changes as a result)?
Cheers