Hello fellow sound-off competitors! As many of you readers know, this magazine has long supported the car audio competitors that make sound-offs great. You might remember Competition Corner from past issues as a source of information, insight, and guidance that helped make you a better competitor. Well, you're in luck because Car Audio's fearless leader, Rodney Wills, has decided to bring back this popular column for your reading enjoyment. Of course, he wanted only the best, most knowledgeable person to write such an important column. Someone who laughs in the face of tough competition, and always has a solution for any problem. Of course, he couldn't afford anybody like that, so he asked me to do it (just kidding, Rodney).
My first car was a beat-up, rusty 1976 Toyota Celica, probably the least likely candidate for a killer hi-fi audio system. I started out with a cheap EQ/booster on the stock head unit, screwed under the dash and connected with wire nuts. I thought it was cool until I turned it on. It was louder, but the sound coming out of those sorry stock speakers was anything but music.
Eventually, I put together a decent setup that could shake the windows in my high-school English classroom (not that I ever did that, of course). I took that car to college in Seattle (go Huskies!) and it was there that I discovered the wonderful world of sound-off competitions. That was in 1994, and the competition scene up there was intense, with multiple shows almost every weekend.
I'll never forget the first show that I went to. I learned the hard way that I had to have my power wires properly fused. I ended up tearing my car apart in the parking lot to install the correct fuses. I'm lucky the car didn't burn to the ground, although that might have been a blessing in disguise. Over the course of that competition year, I learned many things from judges and other competitors that I applied to my system to make it better. I changed something for every show, which isn't easy without a garage or shop to work in. My wife was ready to kick me out of the kitchen of our one-bedroom apartment where I used to cut wood and build fiberglass panels. Eventually, though, I took that car to the 1994 IASCA finals and took second in the Novice 251-500 watt class.
It was at one of the many shows I attended where I met Jeff Jones, who was a sales representative for Alpine Electronics at the time. He liked my car and, when a job at Alpine became available, he called me, and offered me an interview. Of course, I didn't have to think twice; a few days later I was on a plane to Los Angeles to interview for the position! I got it, and immediately sold my ratty Celica to buy something a little nicer: a 1988 Acura Legend. Again, I applied all the things I learned in the Celica to the new system in the Acura, and I was lucky enough to win the IASCA Finals twice with that car, in 1995 and again in 1998. Check out the May 1999 issue of CA&E for the scoop on the Legend.
After I sold that car last year, I decided to upgrade again to a car that I have always wanted: a 1995 BMW M3. I only owned it for a month before Chris Yato (also from Alpine) and I tore it apart and decided to completely rebuild it from top to bottom. Again, I applied all the things I learned in my previous two competition vehicles to the BMW, in order to make it better in every way. The July 2001 issue of CA&E covers the M3 in extreme detail.