Every year, talented installers scramble to finish demo vehicles for two big events: the Specialty Equipment Manufacturer Association (SEMA) Show in fall and the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in winter. Both shows take place in Las Vegas, home of not only massive convention centers but also craps tables, card games and slot machines. Last year, those ubiquitous games of chance followed attendees out of their hotels/casinos and onto the show floor with Directed Electronics/The Snake Pit's '06 Chevrolet Colorado.
Even if you're on the puritanical side and eschew gambling in all its forms, it's hard not to admire a truck this dedicated to a theme. The card graphics are a nice touch, but the real draw is the rotating slot machine in the back. It's an awesome assembly pulled off by The Snake Pit's teaching staff and members of the technical support team at Directed.
The three spinning wheels of a giant slot machine are actually the sub enclosures for 18 PPI Pro 104 subwoofers. "The biggest problem for the design was space," says Ron Hembd, leader of the build team. "We had to design it so all three of the reels would fit in the rear of the truck. During the design phase, we had to get into eighths of inches to make everything fit." In short, it's a lot more fun to look at it than it was to build.
With parts custom machined at a local shop and motors, gears, chains and controllers adapted from other industries, the team succeeded in creating the three independently rotating reels that can roll forward and backward at variable speeds. Each reel holds six subs in 0.8ft3 chambers constructed of MDF, fiberglass and mild steel. The crew says they met their goals for accurate yet loud bass.
With that many woofers, obviously, the truck needed some serious amplification. One amp for each sub adds up to 18 PPI D3000/1's. Tack on three PPI A800/2's for the high-frequency speakers and you've got 21 amps that have to somehow fit. The rear seats went out to make room for a powdercoated steel amprack, which houses 14 amps. Covers for the end and middle were built from fiberglass and MDF, contoured to the vehicle and amplifiers. The remaining amplifiers share in the bed space with five Directed Video HVM700 monitors and eight Kinetik HC2400 batteries in a custom battery rack.
The high-frequency drivers we mentioned earlier may be overshadowed by the subwoofer assembly, but the team took care to mount them in custom enclosures in the C-pillars and newly rebuilt lower doors. Two pairs of PPI 356CS speakers sound in the doors with another pair mounted coaxially in the pillars.
With all the custom work done elsewhere, it's OK that the Pioneer AVIC-Z1 simply bolted to the dash, which was painted to "spice it up a little," Hembd says. A completely hidden source, the Directed DV-2602 sits under the driver's seat and an AudioControl Matrix processor feeds audio signal via Directed Essentials wires to the amplifiers. "There were three outputs on the Matrix, so we built out our own PC board that distributed the signal to the 18 amps," Hembd reveals.
Bodywork by August Slivnik and Oscar at Slivnik Machine includes molded rear doors, shaved door handles, a custom billet grille, molded body kit and shell, and a shaved tailgate. Look underhood and you'll see a Poweraid throttle body spacer and an Airaid cold air intake. More importantly for the audio is the custom Ohio Generator alternator. Power also gets a boost from the three Cascade Audio 80-amp power supplies hidden in the rear of the truck. The entire package of interior and exterior won the Chairman's Award from General Motors.
TechBFGoodrich GForce tiresEibach Springs and upgraded rear key packsMagnaFlow bolt-onAiraid cold air intakePoweraid throttle body spacer