We just got back from what is rightly called The World's Greatest Car Show, aka, the SEMA Show, where we held the finals of our Trifecta series. First off, a big thank you to Peter MacGillivray, VP of Marketing and Communications at SEMA for making it possible - in Vegas, as well as the International Auto Salon in Philadelphia, PA, where we launched Trifecta. Our series just would not have been near the success it was without the help of SEMA. A simple thank you doesn't come close to expressing our real sense of gratitude. Thanks also go out to our VPs: John Cobb and Howard Lim who stuck out their necks for us to get this event going. Of course without the manufacturers there simply would not have been a Trifecta. Thanks to Arc Audio and Demitrios and Robyn Karabinis for giving us the momentum we needed at the start. Finally, to our judges - they sacrificed the most to make this show a success. Many of them took time out, without compensation, to judge for us simply because they liked the idea. Troy Sumitomo (of Five Axis), Mark Eldridge, Gary Bell (of Alpine), Mike Vu, Rob Ida, Ed Ng, Keith Turner, Eric Fitzgerald, Chris Yato, Matthew Valbuena, David Fowlkes and Mike Martin (of Pimp My Ride)
While the series has been gratifying (not to mention a lot of fun) for many reasons, the most rewarding aspect of it has been that we've been able to create something that allows show car and car audio enthusiasts of all kinds to compete together at a single event. That may not sound like a fair way to run a competition, but in the end it turned out to be the very soul of Trifecta. Not that we hadn't planned it that way; we just didn't expect to have the first season results exemplify a major purpose of the show.
The top six cars at the Trifecta finals were trailered or driven in from around the country: New Jersey, Philadelphia, Denver, Florida, California. Some were more on the show car side, some were SQ vehicles (and somewhere in between). As most of the scoring for Trifecta is based on aesthetics and quality, you might not expect that the SQ/SPL points would make much difference. Everyone that saw our booth in the North Hall would probably have put money on the competitors they thought would be 1st to 3rd. Even the competitors resigned themselves to the order of finish from the first day of the show. But in the end, no one had it right. Sure, one of the highly modded out cars won first place, the vehicle and competitor you see on the cover of the magazine, but in second was the dark horse, if you will, the Acura RSX built by SQ guy and Car Toys master Wayne Watkins. He qualified in a short field of competitors in Denver and took full advantage of his entry into the finals, re-working his car with incredible attention to detail. His ultra meticulous work on the interior earned him enough points to stay near the top scores. Then, when he achieved the best point total in the SQ judging he was able to accumulate enough to accelerate in front of two other outstanding vehicles: Zee Siddiqi's 240, our December 2006 cover car and James Moe's classic Chevy Brookwood, which just barely fell into 4th place. Part of the idea of Trifecta was precisely to give competitors a chance to see what their peers were doing and try to improve upon their own designs and audio systems. Justin Efkowitz and his Chrysler 300M deserve the cover (and the Tweeter team that built it, all the accolades, certainly), as well as the $1,500 cash prize, but Wayne Watkins gets the unofficial vote for competitor of the year. Look for an update on his RSX in a future issue. Finally, my thanks to Zee Siddiqi, a builder as gracious as he is talented, which is saying something. Of course, I did have to give him his own page in the magazine to bring the smile back to his face. Levity aside, you'll notice that he has his own how-to column. Given the positive response to the December DIY issue, it was a no-brainer to add Zee to the contributor list. Look for more how-tos on a regular basis from Steve Brown, Zee and other notable builders/designers.
Next month: The Car Audio OE Vehicle of the Year? We check out what the other side is up to when we drive and listen to the new Audi S8 with the Bang & Olufsen system and Lexus' tricked out LS460 with an updated edition of its Mark Levinson setup. This just may be a photo finish.