To make the oil-drum-like tubes the subs fit in, Steve went to a steel fabricator. They took sheet steel nearly a quarter-inch thick and rolled it into a tube, welding the seam. The top plate is a piece of half-inch steel with the hole for the sub. From there, the group of four subs is suspended inside the box. It literally sits in the middle of the box with nothing to hold it but steel bars from the floor to the frame of the joined subs. To feed his tweak-and-tune needs, the entire structure can be moved front and back nearly six inches.
Steve describes how he eventually wound up with his current setup: "I started this with eight subs in the same large port configuration. I was hitting some high 160s, but then I dropped to just six subs and my SPL went higher. Believe it or not, going down to four made it go even higher. So then I re-did the whole structure the way it is now, moving the subs way back and it continued to get louder. Now with the four that move, I can totally tune so I get max SPL."
With so much emphasis on super power amps, subs, and batteries, you almost forget that something has to feed a signal to the system. For that Steve uses what he calls one of the best CD players ever, the Rockford Fosgate RFX 8140. No longer in production, the unit has up to 8 volts of unbalanced output and 16 volts out with a balanced connection. He previously used an AudioControl EQX and Overdrive, but found he just didn't need it; the 8140 had plenty of juice.
All this work has paid off. A competitor for six years, Steve has won nearly everything he has entered. As the 5-time USAC champ, 3-time dB Drag Racing champ and the current world record holder in both, Steve has set the bar very high.
One of the champion's biggest gripes about the current state of SPL affairs is what he characterizes as a "lack of pride" in many competitors. "You see these guys in cars that look like they got them for free at the junkyard. They dumped in some cement and woofers and now they're competing," he says. "If some of these guys were serious, they would at least make their cars look good."
Steve has a high opinion of the SPL community as a whole, but he just wishes some people would take a little more pride in a vehicle's cosmetics. Overall, though, he's thankful for the opportunity to meet so many great people at all the shows over the years.
Tough competitors as well as a lack of prize money has Steve putting the majority of his energy into his retail store, Audio X, in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. He is even very serious when he says he would sell the Caravan if the right person came in with the right amount. How much is that? Steve says you can contact him directly to find out.
People who have worked with Steve say he has talked about retiring recently. But then their bets are also on Steve to win at this years' Finals - all of them! Steve says his new passion is his store and that these new guys are just too hard to keep up with. Sounds like the champ may be lying in wait. We'll have to see.