For the second consecutive year IASCA World Finals was held at the Nopi Nationals in Hampton, GA, just outside of the ATL. While a handful of competitors were from the Atlanta area, competitors drove from as far away as Phoenix, AZ, and Cambridge, ON. This year's event consisted of SQC and ISQC classes that consisted of sound quality judging but not install. The SQ class was one-seat judging and ISQ was two-seat judging. Chris Orblom of IASCA headed the classes.
There were a lot of surprises at this year's Final, the biggest may have been Andy Jones from Tuscaloosa, AL, upsetting the heavily favorite Matt Roberts from Fountain Inn, SC, by a large margin of 15 points. A stunner. Wayne Watkins moved up from Ultimate Pro to Ultimate Expert class and beat out Carlos R. Machuca, the new owner of the seven-time World Champion Buick Regal formally owned by Gary Biggs. In the Pro Street class, Natan Budiono and Ron Baker were the favorites going into the event. Budiono pulled out on top and Ron came in with a fourth place finish. Surprisingly, newcomer Steve McIntyre came in second. The Ultimate Pro class was very tight. John Marsh's score of 457 edged out Eddie DeJesus' score of 456.5-a tough loss for DeJesus. The SQ class also had a very big shock to everyone. The top two finishers were from the Rookie class. David Brooks finished with a score of 220 and Brian Young came in second with a 215. With all the surprises, this year's Finals was one of the more exciting competitions, making next's year event one of the more highly anticipated shows in some time. Until then.
Insider info: The car looks very simple, which is the way I prefer my cars to look. But under all the vinyl and carpet are a few things that I feel set me apart. Some of these items include use of exotic materials like Arberum ($1,200 sheet). This is a laminated material that has a density similar to solid marble, but can still be machined. All of my speakers use this for baffles. My midbass woofer actually uses no screws to attach it to the cabinet. Instead, I made an Arberum ring that presses the speaker to the baffle. This method gives me more even pressure around the basket and helps to remove unwanted resonances. The enclosure for the midbass is actually one of the car's crumple areas. A large hole has been cut into the kick panel to allow access to the area. The crumple zone was then sealed and tested to ensure the left and right cabinets are of equal air volume. Like my midbass woofers, the midrange units are mounted using Arberum. For a cabinet, I made small spheres that I've mounted to the A-pillar. I actually went through four different-sized cabinets before choosing the one that made it into the car. The tweeters are mounted in the sail panel. Like all the other speakers, it took me a few tries to get all the angles right. The sail panel is covered in flock, as is the midrange, gauge cluster and the factory bezel. Flocking allows me to have no seams when covering complex parts. One of the most important parts of this install would have to be the symmetrical dash. The factory Dodge Neon has a huge hump in the dash that I simply couldn't have. I wanted the car to be to be as symmetrical from the left and right side as possible. All things considered, it was one of the easier parts of the install to complete.