Being On Time - Driver's Seat

That sums up this issue! As far as you the reader knows, the magazine shows up at your doorstep on time every month. But our man Jesse has been working double time to make up the time we take to get everything together for him. He is our art director and he is the last person in the chain before the magazine is off to the printer, so it's he who carries the burden of us being on time. We have been out of the office - some of you think of our job as being about having the best time, all the time and going to events and shows as the spring season is under way. Partly true, we just made the Trek to Texas, driving round trip, about 4000 miles.

Then it was off to Spring Break Nationals and Tuner Bash in Daytona Beach Florida. SBN&TB will be in the next issue so stay tuned and keep the subscriptions dialed in! With two weeks out to shows and out of the office, this only leaves us two weeks to put the magazine together, especially rough when the cover is the last thing to be shot and finished at the very last minute and four days past deadline - this is hanging it all out on the line, and staying up way past bed time!

We are not 100% that the cover is going to come out like we want it, not that we do not trust our photographer, but the elements of life are not always in our control. The risk, however, is worth it or is justifiable by our staff when we are talking about the "baddest" car on earth right now! The Alpine/Wings West RSX or as I like to call it by it's real name, the Honda Integra Type R. As you may or may not know, depending if you are a true reader of this magazine, this car is one of the two most influential cars in the industry and on the scene right now. The other vehicle was the Rockford Fosgate Nissan Xterra on the cover of the May issue. It was hard for us to decide as to which car was the toughest overall. So we did not decide and just divided our decisions among best car and best truck. And now we are bringing you the car on top of our list. Chris Yato and Steve Brown of Alpine Electronics brought a new level to the technical and creative skill level in the industry. Some of you might be saying (to yourself) that if you were paid only to create such project cars all day, that you too could create at this level. When you are sleeping and fall out of bed... right!

This is equivalent to the manufacture level of racing, F1 status if you will, o'wait, that is the Alpine theme - F1 Status, so the phrase actually fits. It's just too bad that all the manufacturers are not pushing it to this level. If racing is justifiable around the world for the automotive manufacturers, then this level of audio manufacturer participation should be justifiable. To go back a bit, there are a few cars built in private garages by some extremely dedicated people and are on this level and truly deserve recognition, so please shoot us your images.

Also for you guys in Bama, and specifically in the silly'caga or Talladega area, be on the lookout for my man Daniel Forry, yet to turn 16 in August. He just bought my brother's Toyota NewDeal truck and is totally hooked on the SQL-tip and is ready to bring it back to its original luster if not better! Sorry bro! The original system, still intact but needing some work due to a break in, is composed of a single Image Dynamics 12" sub and ID compression driver component set with 6" mids. A Zapco Studio 204 amp powers the signal through a Zapco signal processor and two Phoenix Gold EQ230 EQ's. And on another note, it may be time for the wrath of Earl Wills to return on the bandpass box wrath (yea right, we like our bass tight) and blast out of the silly'caga woodworks! He's been reading the magazines and getting the itch and missing the action, but the lanes are not calling him, it's the world at large... Pop's if you're reading this, let me know if and when you are ready, the ol' YO!-truck is waiting in the wings and ready for reworking. Hey, I gotta' take care of my peoples!