Reducing wind/ambient noise with car top down

[ncpilot]

@Chuck McCoy

In one of your posts you showed a dead cat stuck on an A329, looks to be cut to size, or do small ones exist? How well does it work for you?

Anyway, does anyone else have direct experience with cutting wind noise in a convertible?

I picked up some loud 4-letter words and laughter in my Miata when I took a right angle turn at about 47mph, labeled for 15mph, the rear broke "a bit" tires squealing... with all the wind noise, not much else heard, although that might be better considering my commentary towards dumbass drivers...

 

[Chuck McCoy]

How well does it work for you?

Well, well, well, look what the cat drug in.
I thought about making a tutorial post on how to improve dash cam audio, but I had a feeling it would fall on deaf ears.
Audio is 50% of evidence, but nobody wants to hear that noise.
OK, enough puns. lol

I first discovered horrible wind noise in my car when I roll all four windows down when I put the original A119 Mini (IMX335) 2022 on my rear window.
Even at 15-25MPH on city streets it was bad.
I don’t get any wind noise from dash cams on the front windshield.
I made a dead cat for my gopro in 2015, and it worked out.
After listening to wind noise in my dash cam test footage for a few years I finally decided to stop being lazy, and fix it.
Now I can drive on the highway up to 80MPH with almost no wind noise.
Here’s before & after on the same road going the same speed;

 

[ncpilot]

Well, what/how did you make it, great vid of results, but I don't know exactly what you did...

 

[Chuck McCoy]

@ncpilot
This is the how-to video I watched back in 2015.

I don’t have a fabric store in my town so I went to Walmart, and they sell fabric by the yard.
They were out of black so I bought this brown stuff for $1.
This looks exactly like the stuff I bought; https://www.amazon.com/gp/B08NFHHTFL

I just remembered, the first deadcat I made was for an external mic for my gopro to film motorcycle rides.
I mounted the mic behind the cowlings to get it away from the wind.
The audio turned out OK.

You can attach the faux fur to the dash cam a bunch of different ways.
I had some Gorilla Glue Epoxy that was going bad so I used up the last of it before it went completely hard.

 

[ncpilot]

Thanks!

 

[Chuck McCoy]

Thanks!

Any update?

 

[ncpilot]

No, I've been so sidelined with progressively worse lumbar stenosis and nerve impingement symptoms into right leg (proved by MRI), along with right hip issues, that I'm happy to have a few hours of relative pain relief a day that I can actually drive the Miata-LOL, play all the smallest violins... I think MIS surgery is coming...

Anyway, my doc did sign off on a temp handicapped placard, that I almost feel guilty using, until I have to stop walking every 50-100 feet to take a break, shopping is fun, about as bad as the first month after my bilateral inguinal hernia repair...😆