It's almost 2002 which means that the big 2001 sound-off events, including the Finals, are here. By the time you read this we will have just hit the NOPI show in Atlanta (the biggest car show in the youth market - 50,000+), and will be on our way to the dB Drag Finals in Nashville where we'll be getting our country freak on. Maybe they call it, "Getting your swing on" there; we will find out for you. We're crisscrossing the country, covering more shows; and next year we are looking to get out even more! Naturally, the IASCA and USAC Finals are on the list, too.
The big news this year is that Super Street Magazine is coming to IASCA in a big way after being neglected by the latter (which did not take advantage of the cross-marketing possibilities or bring extra value to the shows over the years). But you and I are to blame too! Sound quality competition was at such a high a few years ago, but no one would open his or her cars to show it off at a sound event. It may still be the same but I had to check out of the morgue for a few years to clear my head. So why bother if we can't look at it, much less listen to it. I have no problem spreading the blame; even my family is not exempt. Back in either '93 -'94 my father was competing intensely with his Toyota mini-truck. He was all about the sound quality. If you go back and look at the IASCA history books you will see that mini-truck surprised a lot of people with its great sound quality. That truck scored some of the highest points in SQ on the circuit, but so what! No one got to see it, or even listen to it! But when it came time to build the Impala we knew what we had to do; and that was show it off. Pops had no trouble adapting. People could touch it, feel it, sit in it and listen to the system. They still remember the car to this day! But in my opinion that mini-truck rocked more than the Impala! I would love to show you new readers the beautiful photos that John Skalicky shot of the Impala, but the boys over at Car Sound somehow wound up with the photos and have not returned the images yet. It was featured in the July 1995 issue of CA&E for you old school magazine collector types.
My father made the transition from strictly a competitor to part showman and so did many others at the time. Still, the event itself did not offer much to see other than the manufacturers' booths. One individual even went to the extreme to set up stage lights and used a personal pre-recorded CD presentation, but this only made the judges furious as it was an attempt to break out of the normal cattle call. Yes, IASCA was the top show in town and was not helping to bring more eyes to our arena. Turning down the rumored sponsorship from BF Goodrich which would have provided new tires as prizes for the winning competitors in 1996 did not help either. Maybe they were just getting old and tired, no pun intended. Maybe it was the calm before the storm of the new import enthusiast trend and the rush of the "Fast & Furious" market. Maybe if IASCA had accepted the invitation in 1997 to hold its show in Las Vegas during the SEMA event these two markets would have bridged sooner. But then again now that I look back on it, the automotive industry was not even ready for this so called "tuner" market at the time.