V 4 & Rotary Sounds Alive & Extreme Bass Battle Sound Off Nationals January 2015

Where to start with such an amazing day… Well, I guess at the start is as good a place as any.

Rocking up at the ASB Showgrounds just on 7:30am I expected to sit and relax a while awaiting others arrival…. That wasn’t to be, there were already others there, and for once we were allowed into our competing area early to allow setup to happen much earlier also.

Setup went through very smoothly (after many years of doing this Ashley has it down to a fine art and coordinated everyone with surgical precision).

With the competitor list restricted to a lower number this year, and only the 1 interruption for a council sound check, it enabled the day to run much more smoothly than the previous year.

This year saw quite a few changes, from the system setups, to the people in the scene, this year had a raft of new competitors that were eager to get their numbers on the board and have a great day.

This year saw a large shift from a more purely SPL setup to ground pounding low frequency setups, and more people choosing to play music over sine wave tone frequencies.

As the day went on,and more and more numbers were being put on the board, it was hard not to notice just how more relaxed the scene has become at competitions, with people staying back with their cars making fine little adjustments almost a thing of the past, and making way for people cranking their systems and giving hair raising demos to other competitors, and the crowd alike.

Throughout the day, along with many new numbers hitting the leaderboards, were a raft of incredible personal bests. For me, 2 stand out cars of the show had to be those of Jody Green, and Tom Mangu, both competitors making huge trips (Taupo and Taranaki respectively) in their small 2 door hatchbacks packed with more Bass than your average rock concert, seeing these 2 monsters of setups competing this year was a true honor.

First up we had Jody hit the lanes and blast out an incredible 159.5dB @ 64Hz on Tone, amazing not only the crowd, but himself in the process, an amazing result from an incredible machine! A great testament to Jody’s patience and work…. And it was only its first outing AND is still a work in progress. I personally can’t wait to see where this leads.

The Second stand out run of the day had to be from the man himself Tom Mangu and his ground ripping 155.5dB @ 25Hz on Music. This beast of a car has to be sat in to truly understand what 25Hz at that sort of dB means; completely sealed you will still feel the earth moving over 6 feet away (this was about where the judging table was).

Please head on over to www.dbdrag.co.nz for results and picture coverage of the event.

Please allow me to take a little time to thank a few people for whom this event would not have been the huge success it was.

Firstly Ashley Madd Bass Burrell… what can I say…. thank you so much for the time, effort, hours and money you have and continue to put into this scene! and for enabling us to once again run an amazingly successful competition this year at the 4s n Rotary Nationals.

To all of the other officials that helped today I bow down to you all, thank you so much for all of your help! Without you all, the event would most certainly not have run as well as it did… my most heartfelt thank you to you all!

Tom Mangu

Kamo Eriepa

Joe George

And others that helped throughout the day

To Deirdere Thompson…. This is one serious trooper!! At 7months Pregnant she soldiered on for the entire day without missing a beat, starting and finishing the Termlab, and noting the scores, then filling in all of the certificates handed out on the day.

Last but not least by any stretch…. ALL OF YOU!!! Without the commitment and dedication you all show to your systems, we would not have the amazing scene we have… thank you ALL!!