Indoors at the Denver Coliseum where the car hop and the Trifecta awards ceremony, seen below, took place.
After a successful first event at SEMA's Auto Salon, Car Audio and Electronics' Trifecta made its Lowrider debut at Denver, Co, July 9th. Competitors, judges and staffers braved the rain and cold weather on Sunday to determine the top three cars based on the following criteria: aesthestics/build quality; sound quality; and peak SPL reading.
Famous builders/designers such as Troy Sumitomo of Five Axis, Gary Bell currently of Alpine (one of the builders of the Sinister 6), Mike Vu (who co-built the BMW X5 Ultimate Listening Machine featured on the TV show Rides), and car audio legend Mark Eldridge were all on hand to choose the Trifecta winner.
Z Siddiqi with his outlandish 240 won first place, $500 plus the invite to compete at the Finals at SEMA in Las Vegas. He scored an impressive 111 points, most of which were awarded for the incredible aesthestics and craftsmanship. This drivable show car with a subwoofer for a steering wheel easily captured the judges and spectators' collective imagination.
Second place went to a local, Wayne Watkins, with his SQ Acura RSX (featured in our March '06 issue). A USACi competitor, Watkins impressed sound quality judges, Ed Ng, Keith Turner and Eric Fitzgerald with his system. He earned $250 and also an invite to compete at the SEMA show.
Third place was a tie between James Risenhover and his black Mustang and Vince Brackett with his Infiniti QX4. They scored 91 points each and split the third place prize money.
Next up: Trifecta @ Extreme Autofest, San Diego, Oct 1st. For further updates check out www.caraudiomag.com.
Top 10
| Philadelphia - Denver... |
| 1. | Justin Efkowitz | Chrysler 300M | 127.6 |
| 2. | "Z" Siddiqi | Nissan 240SX | 113.5 |
| 3. | Ryan Shutt | Honda Civic | 111.1 |
| 4. | Mark Abate | Saturn Ion | 108.8 |
| 5. | Wayne Watkins | Acura RSX | 106.0 |
| 6. | John Williams | Mitsubishi Eclipse | 104.0 |
| 7. | Chris Zitkevitz | Mazda6 | 103.1 |
| 8. | Keith Losier | Chevy Cobalt | 102.3 |
| 9. | Gary Herndon | Chevy Firebird | 101.5 |
| 10. | Mark Palines | Nissan Skyline | 96.9 |
 |  |  |
Wayne Watkins' second place RSX. | 
James Risenhover's third-place Mustang. | 
Third place finisher Vince Brackett's Infiniti QX4. |
Michael Chavez's monitor- and cash-laden H2. | 
Local competitor, Will Ehlers' Charger. | 
Acoustic Edge's stunning H2 with some elaborate custom aluminum work. |
Rockford Fosgate's demo vehicle which was not part of Trifecta, to the relief of the other competitors. | 
Competitor Greg Dalton's Avalanche. |  |