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dB Drag Racing

Posted by michael on from the highway-to-the-danger-zone dept.

Exedore writes "For a paltry $80,000 outlay, you too can fight back against the punk kids blasting gangsta rap from their Honda Civics. Enter the strange (and rather loud) world of dB Drag Racing and join a small group of dedicated competitors in their quest for the loudest car sound system possible. The numbers: 130,000 watts output, 177dB, 10,000 lbs. of equipment (including the vehicle and all the sound insulation needed to protect those nearby). It might not be quite up to Disaster Area standards, but it's not far off."

11 of 397 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Check out my new weapon of choice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Nah... I'd prefer a Herf Gun

    Capable of "stalling cars at a distance"...

    perfect

  2. little known fact by csimicah · · Score: 5, Interesting

    These guys have to be starting to bump into limiting returns... the maximmum possible dB in free air is 194 IIRC. I wonder if it would be legal to pressurize the vehicle to achieve higher max dB's...

    1. Re:little known fact by csimicah · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I think they're up to 177, but your point still stands... 17 more dB is a long way to go.

      To clarify the first post, 194 dB is what you get when your sound pressure wave goes from atmospheric (14.7 psi) down to the lowest possible pressure (0 psi). Think about that... the speaker cones are actually fighting to pull a vacuum inside the vehicle. Not exactly something the speakers in your living room have to deal with!

      You definitely wouldn't want to be sitting in there... I think your eardrums would be woggling back and forth quite a bit. Uhhh... once.

    2. Re:little known fact by coyote-san · · Score: 4, Interesting

      That reminds me of a Discover(?) or Scientific American magazine article on materials processing with sound. Hundreds, or was it thousands, of dB. I remember them commenting that the sound so intense it would set your hair on fire... but you wouldn't notice since your flesh would be liquified.

      This has absolutely nothing to do with the topic, of course, other than the wonderful mental image of what it would do to somebody trying to impress the neighborhood with their sound system.

      --
      For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
  3. Yeah, thats super. We all need more of this. by Bowie+J.+Poag · · Score: 4, Interesting


    Why doesn't someone build/sell a small EMP weapons? You know, enough to reboot anything electronic CD player/radio within 20 feet?

    Hell, i'd camp out at the store the night before to buy one of those.

    --
    Bowie J. Poag

  4. I love the punk kids.... by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I still have my stereo in my car from the 80's when I did the SPL scene...

    I absolutely love having some wannabe pull up with his sky-hook wing and blasting ICP and trying to look cool... when I look at them, put in ear plugs and Blast them hard with either whiney country or something else that they would find horribly obnoxious... (Pointer sisters works great!)

    I produce a tiny 112DbI but then I have only 1000 watts in 11 year old amps and rockford fosgate speakers in that convertable... but I completely drown out the stereo they are listening to in their car.

    you CANT beat a custom 7th order isobarik subwoofer box.... the off the shelf junk is just that.... 100% junk.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  5. Sympathetic vibration is fun. by mikeophile · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've always wanted to see if one of those boomboxes on wheels would shake itself to bits if it were to play the right frequency of infrasound.

  6. The KLF and Sonic Weaponry... by WIAKywbfatw · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Jimmy Cauty aka Rockman Rock of the techno act The KLF allegedly had an interesting mobile sound system, courtesy of the British Army. From the KLF FAQ:

    Q: What's Jimmy's sonic weapon?

    A: Jimmy purchased two Saracen armoured vehicles at a scrap yard for ukp 4,000 and found equipment in them which he thought could have been used for sonic warfare. He has tried to assemble the acoustic gun from information he found on the Internet. Installing huge amplifiers and special speakers to cope with the very low frequencies cost him tens of thousands of pounds.

    The 25,000-watt sonic gun can project sound for around 7 miles, and Jimmy annoyed his Devon neighbours by testing it on Midsummer's Day, 1996. Jimmy said: "I moved to Devon six months ago for a bit of a rest and this is a project I am taking an interest in. I do not see it as music or art." He said that he aimed the gun away from homes and it seemed to have no effect on sheep.

    The Melody Maker said: "He was testing his two Audio Weapon Systems in a field near his new home. 'He alerted people to the fact that he was doing this by setting off some military flares. Then he
    tested his Audio Weapons System for an hour for a very select group of scientists and friends. The Audio Weapons System is not designed to kill people." ... [Cauty] first tested it at a Wire gig on Hungerford Bridge in May. ...
    In January, Panasonic [ the "Finnish conceptual techno nutters"-NME] borrowed one of the Audio Weapons Systems for tests on how sonic waves affect the human body at Brick Lane in London. ... A fax from Mr. Smith, the Head Of Commercial Exploitation at Advanced Acoustic Armaments, was sent to The Maker. It read : "The test took place to establish the parameters of the new vehicle solo and in tandem with its sister model, SS 9000K+L. The test featured new software generated for our latest commercial client, EXP LTD, and is described by Mr. Cauty as featuring 'the ultimate battle between sound and commerce ending in the death of all musicians and their ascension to rock-n-roll heaven or hell as befits them.' Yesterday we received communication with ex-Government employees who, in the Sixties, worked on audio weapon development with an offer of help and some ex-classified equipment. We regret any such death or damage that has resulted from our tests, but there are casualties in every war. The Triple A Formation Attack Ensemble will perform 'Foghorns Of The Northern Hemisphere' as part of an educational programmed supporting our research shortly."

    Most of this is probably scam, but Cauty has recorded an album of sonic waves for Paul Smith's Blast First label under the name AAA. The album is in the hands of lawyers who are trying to clear some of the samples used on it, and has yet to be released (07/96). It appears to be a Cauty solo project.

    More recently, Jimmy teamed up with new Asian-techno group, Black Star Liner for a _happening_ in a field on Dartmoor. Jimmy chartered a 'chopper to take BSL and assorted journos out to Dartmoor, where he intended to remix the Halaal Rock track in his tank. Apparently, BSL bumped into Cauty on London's South Bank, while he was driving about in his tank, he got hold of their album, and said that he wanted to work with them. Anyway, the chopper was grounded by severe fog, so everyone was put on a convey of buses. All the journos were given _orange_ jackets to wear. They eventually arrived at a field full of military vehicles, and people in _yellow_ jackets, wearing goggles and ears protectors, doing some form of formation dancing. The journos were lead to the ir seats, and had large floodlights shone into their eyes, while the yellow jackets let of flares all around them.

    There were a load of goats skulls on sticks around the field, and a whole pile of fireworks let of towards the end of the mix, when Cauty was mixing in some Jimi Hendrix. However, this d

    --

    "Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
  7. Old news, but still fun by qengho · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Wired Magazine did an entertaining story about this a couple of years ago. My favorite part was the description of riding around West Palm Beach with one of the guys, setting off car alarms with sound pulses:

    Eager to crank up the system, he hands me a set of earplugs. "Let's hear some bump."

    I stick the plugs in, and he hits the burp button, a red switch on the center console. It's difficult to describe what happens next. The noise sounds like "BRRROONNNNKKKKK!" The vehicle vibrates like a jackhammer, but much lower and deeper. I feel air blowing the back of my hair, and my body starts to rise out of the seat. My pant legs are flapping. Everything in the car is rattling like crazy, and I realize my vision is blurred as my face pulls back taut against my skull. The only reaction left is to laugh out loud. I look over at Billy E gripping the steering wheel, squinting and grinning maniacally. He lets up on the button, and the chaos stops.

    "If you're drinking a Coke, your throat will shut." I'm amazed I can actually hear his voice. "It's like being underwater. Your ears don't ring; they're just muted. After a day, everything opens up again," he says.

  8. Re:More targets.... by PaulK · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If I'm not mistaken, the US Army has developed a method of using sound for crowd control.

    I really don't care to think of what would happen if a persons resonant frequency was "accidentally" broadcast.

    As for the radar, back when I was in the navy, we used to light up our master chief's vw bug as it came down the road.... sputter...sputter...sputter...

    I'm grateful that we had a rather limited radar capability, (ssbn), so as to not actually HURT the man.

  9. Re:oooh by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 4, Interesting
    You laugh, but the SNCF (French National Railroads) have trouble recruiting new train engineers (drivers, for you UK types). Their medical standards are so stringent that they have a hard time finding kids with unimpaired hearing, thanks to all those loud discos.

    Even worse, whenever a kid shows up for the medical wearing a walkman, he is automatically rejected...