CA&E: Do you have any special building techniques when it comes to enclosures?M.B.: The van, or enclosure, is basically a large bandpass box on wheels. The interior is designed to funnel the energy to the passenger side of the van, where the microphone is measuring the volume or decibels. There are a few different ways of doing this, mine being a little bit different from the normal. There are many different limitations on us based on the rules of the different organizations.
CA&E: What is your power system setup?M.B.: I'm running four JBL A6000 GTi amplifiers. The amps themselves are massive and weigh 100 pounds each. They are capable of putting out over 8,000 watts each, putting the wattage of the van at over 32,000 watts. To anyone that's an electrician reading this, the van is actually capable of fully powering a 200-amp electric service to a house! To keep the amps running at full tilt, I have 10 12-volt batteries from Eagle Picher Horizon, 40 Hawker BC cell 2-volt batteries and two Batcap 8400 series capacitors. All the batteries are wired together to make a 14-volt battery system. The batteries are then either charged with a Batcap battery charger or the 350-amp Powermaster alternator.
CA&E: What special considerations need to be taken into account for a competition SPL vehicle?M.B.: As funny as this may sound, transporting it around! The van now weighs over 11,500 pounds, that's basically six tons! You have to find a car trailer capable of dealing with the weight and tires that won't overheat and blow out from the sheer stress! Not to mention a vehicle big enough to tow it. If you actually attempted to drive the van itself with any speed, the axle would snap on it!
CA&E: Can someone take the techniques used in these competition systems to create their own high-dB daily driver?M.B.: The techniques used in a vehicle this extreme don't really carry over to a regular driver, but on the other hand, the equipment regular street beaters use is greatly effected. The abuse we put some of the equipment through can help manufacturers find the weak spots in equipment that may have never been noticed until years later. If a manufacturer can redesign products to live through a five-minute dB Drag Deathmatch, you'll have no issues with booming away on it when you're driving around town. This is also a huge factor in our decisions for equipment. I've been running the same four amps for four years. Through those years, including two grueling Deathmatches, I've NEVER had an amplifier fail during a competition.
CA&E: What do you think is the most important part of a winning SPL vehicle?M.B.: Quality products and a major amount of dedication. The amount of labor and testing that goes into a vehicle like this is hard to put into words. There are no computer programs that will plot out how certain things will react at over 170dB. You will build something for days, spend $800 doing it and tear it right back out a day later. There is a major amount of trial and error, take tons of notes and never overlook one detail. No matter how minor a thing you may think it is, it has some kind of affect on your score.