It’s like drag racing but with music… not really.
When people usually think about car related activities involving us enthusiasts, what their minds usually default to is the generic, testosterone filled world of fast and furious cars running on insane boost levels with nothing on the inside but the driver, a super model and all the tanks of nitrous you could ever need, but it’s not always like that. The car scene expands far beyond just racing or polluting the air with tire smoke. Welcome to the realm of “Sound”.
Music is something that millions of people all around the world are borderline addicted to, so it’s of no surprise that the love of music would find its way intertwined with the love of cars. But it’s not always just fun and games. The same way you have your casual speed junkies and your hard core racers, you have the average Joe who upgrades his OEM cost friendly sound system for something a bit more quality, and then there’s the elite who transform their vehicles into mobile entertainment centers ready to shake the very earth we stand on. These elites just like the racers feel the need to test their might against others in their league, battling it out for vocal superiority and thus we have events like the annual and popular Sound Warz or Sound Clash as some call it.
Sound Clash is much more than slapping on a budget basement amp and sub to your car, turning up the bass setting on the deck and playing as loud as physically possible. It isn’t a race where there is a clear winner and loser, where you let loose and go your hardest to make the best time. There’s a science to it, both on the ends of the participants and the judges. The cars are judged not only by something as simple as maximum volume but also by the execution of design, crispness and clarity of their audio systems as they display how well they deal with all the different notes and frequencies that different songs have to dish out. The judges have ears finetuned through years of experience to pick up on each criteria of a vehicle’s audio performance, allowing for them to fairly pick out a winner among the many very capable competitors.
Speaking of competitors, the vehicles which took part were nothing short of astonishing, with all manner of design and setups, brands and styles. Variety was certainly not an issue with the most common attribute amongst these vehicles being hatch-backed trunks, clearly a normal car sized boot isn’t sizable enough for what these guys are going for. These guys aren’t just putting two 12s in and some door speakers, they are going all out. Speaker upon speaker, bass, mids, tweeters, amps and on one occasion enough alternators to power a medium sized building for the night. One would be hard pressed not to respect the time and effort that has gone into these vehicles, particularly the clean setups. A Mark II Blit with its amplifier given its own enclosure visible through a plexiglass screen, a BMW 3-Series Touring with its entire door panels transformed into speaker enclosures. The commitment and lack of rear visibility is real.
Each and every vehicle that came on stage was impressive, with the exception of one which was having some issues, it was a day of great performances and they along with the DJs of the day had the crowd very much riled up and hungry for more. I’m certain had the event not have an end time it could have gone on for hours longer. With food and drink readily available, many beautiful cars on display including classics and the ability to get up close and personal with the cars taking place prior to them going on stage, it was truly a fun filled event which did not disappoint. At the end of the day the #1 place in the grudge matches went to Joe Knows and his very stock looking Mitsubishi Pajero with its beefy audio system playing all the right notes, especially those lows, mmm the lows.
