In every industry, sport, work environment, and family there always seems to be a person who makes a little more effort to stand out, but somehow doesn't get the recognition for it. Thirty-year-old Steve Cook can relate. He's gone the extra mile and definitely deserves a little more attention. While Alma Gates continues to get the publicity, the three-time dB Drag Racing champ garners only a mention here and there and, sometimes, not even that. But all that is about to change.
Steve started his SPL quest in 1995 with the purchase of a very soccer-mom-like 1993 Dodge Caravan. But you can't judge this Caravan on the vehicle category it belongs to. Certainly there's nothing visually spectacular about it, but the point of employing this minivan had nothing to do with its looks. Steve had fooled around with SPL and big bass for a few years and was ready to get down to business. A van was the way to go; and the Dodge literally afforded him the opportunity
"Bass. I love the feeling of sitting in a car with low bass," Steve says enthusiastically with a kind of glazed look on his face. If you take a look at Steve's track record, you'll see that there's no doubt where his heart is. So far this year, he has won at the Daytona Spring Break Nationals (171.7 dB), a Springfield, Missouri Triple-Point event (172.0 dB), and in his own backyard at the Audio X Summer Nationals in Tuscumbia, Alabama with a massive, record-setting 172.8 dB. However, the highlight for Steve was setting the overall USAC SPL record with a remarkable 169.4 dB on the dreaded B&K meter to beat out the likes of Alma Gates and Jaime Delapaz
Quite recently, SPL enclosures have undergone a few changes. In years prior, winning consisted of using mammoth amounts of subwoofers in small sealed boxes with significant power. But insanity has stricken the SPL scene. Today's vehicles use less woofers in large ported enclosures, and extreme power levels that exceed the power of entire systems of yesteryear on a single sub.
"I always try to do something different. Back when everyone was using Cerwin Vega Stroker subs in large vented enclosures, I decided to try other woofers in a similarly built enclosure," says Steve. "You see, Strokers were the commanding force that brought about modern SPL enclosures (vented) in an era that was mainly dominated by sealed boxes. So I stuck a PPI flat piston sub in one of those Stroker [sized] enclosures and it did awesome! I was doing it different and winning. Next thing I knew, other competitors were doing the same thing," he says.
Being one of the first people to win with a vented enclosure, Steve expanded on the concept. Never looking back, he has continued to experiment with hundreds of different designs and it is obviously resulting in rich dividends.
The Caravan has evolved to the point where it now houses just four 15-inch subs in a box configuration that is very hard to describe. By gutting the van's interior, Steve was able to fit in a wall-to-wall sub enclosure. The outer walls are made from 1" MDF; however, it is the material attached to the MDF that really makes the box so strong.
With the exception of the floor, there is a small distance from the outside wall of the box to the sheet metal of the van. On the top and sides of the box, Steve used six different types of dampening and reinforcing. It ranges from wood, to fiberglass, to steel. He won't get more specific than that. The composition of the material may not weigh the same as concrete - others have used concrete in their setups - but the walls of Steve's enclosure, including the back wall, are every bit as strong.
Another trick every SPL freak should know is to seal the cabin. To get this done, Steve tore out the dash and everything that would unbolt, all the way to the firewall. The rules in dB Drag Racing require the vehicle to be driveable, so all of the driving essentials had to stay, including the steering column, brake and gas.