Most Liked Automotive Blogs (377)

never heard of it until i worked with 20 somethings. now i can identify salesmen by hair and shoes. lol
my little brothers

no judging. just a listen

I was waiting at a red light yesterday when a guy in an SUV pulled along side of me. The music coming out of his vehicle was so loud, it was making my car thump. I didn't know the (hip-hop) song, but I could clearly hear the lyrics from inside my car with the windows rolled up and the a/c on high.
A friend of a friend owned a car stereo shop who did custom work. By word of mouth, people came from miles for him to install some HUGE systems. Most upgraded car sound systems have special speakers and a sub bass box in the trunk that only plays the low notes.
Some background:
It's usually stated the range of human hearing is 20 to 20,000 HZ (hertz or cycles per second) and there are many factors that affect those numbers. loud sounds for example. Industrial workers in high noise environments are required to use hearing protection. The guys at airports who direct jets into the gate wear noise reducing protection. Loud sounds without hearing protection will accentuate hearing loss. Ask any Heavy Metal musician if he's got hearing loss and their first response could be "Huh?"

SPL is the acronym for Sound Pressure Level and there are metering devices for measuring pressure. I've always heard sound pressure is measured in decibels for music loudness and for the purpose of this blog, any pressure musical or not, is considered the same. Sub-octave sounds below the threshold of human hearing are felt more than actually heard and can be described as pulsating air.

So what's the purpose of a 5,000 watt sound system in your SUV?
It doesn't follow logic, but in certain circles there is status for having 'more bass' much the same as someone on a Saturday night doing racing with the fastest car or the most horsepower.

The shootout is a competition event where vehicles are 100 yards (or more) from the judge who has a decibel meter. They play their best sound with hope of generating more SPL's at the greatest distance.



This style of competitive volume isn't limited to the United States, as many of the photos I've seen are from enthusiasts in European countries.

Because of the high power current draw, the vehicles have to be equipped with several alternators and batteries to generate sufficient wattage.

I was born in '64
None before me spoke for me
I was free mind living in the Romper Stompers
Big Blue Marble schooled me
Tales from nations far from me
I ain't no dummy
Put your cache away
You got nothing to stay
Real world chimes
Whines remind
A charlie horse is just a spasm
Of a malignant o*gasm
Of hate and spew
That flavors a stew
Of yes and know
We all know better
lick the letter
seal it with a kiss
of life or death

I was a kid when the movie Ben-Hur came to theaters. 1959 to be exact. One scene was the Chariot Race and if you were like me... you were hanging on the EDGE OF YOUR SEAT!!
The scary part was Messala, the bad guy who had a chariot equipped with a sharp pointy wheel axle that would break the spokes of the chariot driven by Judah Ben-Hur (actor Charlton Heston) and her was nearly victorious, but Ben-Hur out maneuvered Messala and won the race.
Note: I knew Messala was the bad guy because he had a team of black horses!

Anyway a few thousand years later, we've got our own chariot drivers with sharp pointy wheel hubcaps. I refer to them as Spartacus hubcaps. Judge for yourself...



Flashback to the Ben-Hur chariot Race

The TPMS is a Tire Pressure Monitoring System that is standard equipment for all new cars. It's part of the tire valve stem located inside the rim where you add air to the tires. The sensors are linked to the car's computer and a warning light on the dashboard will come on to alert the driver when the tire pressure falls below a predetermined value. For my car, it's about 28 pounds of pressure when the sensor activates the low pressure warning.

I typically have my tires filled to 32 pounds of pressure.
We've had some cold weather this month with morning temperatures in the high 50's. Tires normally filled when the weather is in the 80's will have much lower pressure at 60 degrees Fahrenheit and the warning light comes on.

After 15-20 minutes of driving, the tires have warmed up and the pressure is back into range. The warning light goes off.

This weekend, I'll add some air to each tire enough to keep the warning light from coming on, but not so much that it's above specification when the outside temperature is back to the 80's

You're thinking about her arsehole right?

5 year old boy was pulled over in Utah on his way to California to buy a Lamborghini.