[DanElam]

Our 5.0L Spec Racer is typically 92 or 93db depending on ambiant air temp. You are supposed to wear hearing protection if exposed to sounds greater than 80-85db. The scale is logrithmic, so an increase to 103 is quite significant. If you got to 130db, I suspect that the guage was broken: rock drills typically max out at 130db. In any case, even short term exposure causes hearing loss, especially of high end frequencies that are useful to determine impending engine failure. (I said: "YOU ARE GOING TO NEED A NEW MOTOR!") Ear drum perforation is about 160db and standing next to a jet is about 140db. You would have to be gulping enormous amounts of air in order to do that.

As a practical matter, most tracks have a limit of 102db. If you exceed that, you go home. Even most localities have a limit on how much noise the car can produce. I should point out that most race cars don't have a problem staying below the noise limit.