As part of our 20th anniversary retrospective, we're showcasing some of our favorite vehicles of the past two decades. You'll be able to vote on your favorite car later. Here's another stunner for which to choose from.
It's a rare sight to see a semi in CA&E. However, this particular truck is a complete work of art. James and Debby Cotta have the honor of owning this rig one-of-a-kind 1956 Mack B-73 dubbed the "Millennium Mack." that it took eight years to complete.
Old semis have been a long time passion for Cotta, but the moment he walked into Lodi Auto Stereo in Lodi, California with his 1989 Crew Cab Dually a new passion emerged. He handed over the keys to owner Gary Patteson with instructions to "do it up" while Cotta was off on a ski trip. "I didn't give him much time and he exceeded all of my expectations," recalls Cotta. Ever since that time, Cotta has taken all his vehicles to Patteson's shop. Patteson knew that the Mack was not going to be one of your "run of the mill" installs. He and his team, including Manuel Arisman and Jason Bishop, knew that attention to detail would not be the only factor in the installation-the sound quality had to knock your socks off as too.
The first install challenge involved mounting the source unit and equalizer. Because of a rather large engine Cotta had installed, the firewall protrudes into the cab where the newly constructed center console resides. This is where Cotta wanted the Clarion DRX6675Z head unit and Arc Audio PEQ 7-band parametric equalizer installed. The team had to dismantle both units and apply ribbon cable to both components. Although, it was a tedious process, Patteson wanted to make Cotta happy. Hand-made billet bezels were fabricated for a unique cosmetic appearance.
Rainbow Reference Series CS260.30 components (6-1/2" mids and tweets) were used up front to provide the mids and highs. The installation crew fabricated a set of kick panels for the components. The finished kick panel was painted to match the exterior color of the truck. Positioning of the speakers was just as important as the perfect finish of the kick panels; so two lasers were used for exact placement and positioning of the speakers.
A set of Rainbow midbass drivers was installed in the doors. The doors were fabricated from scratch and before installing the inner door skin Dynamat Extreme was added to the inside of the door. The 6 " woofer was secured to a baffle made of MDF and bolted into the steel frame of the door. A hand-made polished billet grill protects them.
Due to limited space, the team forwent rear speakers. Only subwoofers were installed in the rear of the cab. The enclosure (also an integral part of the amp rack) features two Rainbow SW300's 12-inch subwoofers. Each woofer is in a sealed enclosure of 1.5 cubic foot of air space.