I’ve always thought my little GTI was somewhat of a green-er car. Even with all the upgrades and power enhancements, I still pull out between 28-31mpgs, which isn’t too bad by today’s standards. However, I never considered the spin SAAB is using in their most recent TV commercial to market turbocharged engines: recycling your exhaust. That’s right, I’m greener than most cars because I recycle my exhaust and turn the spent gasses into more power for my little four-banger.

Of course, we’ll ignore the fact that since I enjoy boost, I probably burn more fuel when the turbo starts to spool, since the best way to get lots of boost is to romp on the long pedal. Oh well. It’s a good commercial and a fun marketing spin.

• SoundDomain moderator Brian Murphy wanted a stealthy sub box for his Lancer Sportback, but nothing was available that met his needs. So what does a professional installer do when nothing is available in the stores? You make it! Check out Murph’s fiberglass sub tub enclosure build over in the forums.
• Team Bassick’s Bangin’ Burban build is coming along nicely. The steel cage for the subwoofer box is just about complete and man does it look burly!
• As of July 1st many states have a new law on the books that makes talking on your cell phone while driving illegal, unless you have a handsfree kit. Just as a friendly reminder, Scosche put out this public service advertisement announcement.
• Steve Meade added three new videos to his mix.Two are new old stock that you haven’t seen yet but don’t want tomiss, and he also added a fresh vid of a new victim getting a taste ofthe Tahoe!
• In case you missed it, Texas Heat Wave photos are live!!

Well I guess it took a bit longer to get this gallery live than it does most of our other events… Why? Because I made it a point to shoot every car, truck, and two-wheeled vehicle that crossed my path! There are almost 1500 pictures in our Austin Heat Wave coverage, with an amazing amount of trucks, SUV, domestic and import cars blazing in the hot Austin sun. There were even a few crazy motorcycles, ATVs, and a few lowrider bicycles to add a little flavor to the show. Can you find yours? For a break down on the coverage, check out the SoundDomain Blog.

Check out the complete coverage!

The Texas Heat Wave show series is one of the biggest in Texas, and quite possibly the entire South. I attended back in 2003 while working for Custom Sounds (the title sponsor), and was blown away. I had never attended a show with so many cars in one location! The event offers a lot of everything: from hot rods to muscle cars, to donks, boxes, and bubbles, to sport compact, trucks, sport bikes, choppers, if it rolls on wheels, it’s here. Seriously, this show is ginormis! Soulja Boy, Paul Wall, Lil Boosie, and Lil Will will also be performing during the weekend—and then there’s the bikini contest. I just hope I have enough time to check it all out! I’m heading down to Texas tomorrow to get ready to shoot the entire show, and we’ll have my pics posted as soon as I get back. There might even be a few Team SoundDomain members on hand at the car stereo competition. More details to come, so stay tuned!

Get more details over at the Heatewave’s website!

• I took my first driver’s license test over 15 years ago and I still remember every gruesome minute. I actually did fairly well, but I did lose points for driving too cautious and slow! Boy have I proved them wrong since then! And so did the kid in this video. Johnny punked five driving instructors by taking them for one of the worst drives of their life!
• This wouldn’t be a proper SoundDomain Sound-Off without a mention of the Master of Bass, Steve Meade. Watch him school a few new victims in the science of SPL.
• Photoshop FAIL! Looks like this big box retailer needs to send their Photoshop pros back to school or at least hire their car audio installers to build an actual custom install for their Sunday circular ad….
• There’s no better place to live than the good ‘ol USA. Unless you want these sweet Harman Kardon amplifiers in your car.
• Team SoundDomain’s Robert Petty looked at many different radios closely before deciding on the Alpine IVA-W205 for his SQ competition car, and here’s why. Hop over to SoundDomain for a break down on this impressive multimedia navigation-capable radio.
• JVC and Danny Klein (Yep the same Lotus Exige S-driving Danny Klein from Bull Run glory) put together a pretty steamy music video to celebrate some of the cool features in the new JVC Kameleon source units. Wow.
• Yep, you can hate me too. I got to drive Lambos. But day before I was working on my GTI project car and made some solid progress in the hatch area.  What’d you do this weekend?

• Pioneer’s Sound Build-Off was a huge success and to help promote the individual shops that participated, Pioneer put together some short videos showcasing the owners or installers providing the details on their custom work. Cartronics FJ Cruiser is pretty impressive inside and out, but Horizon Audio’s Hot Rod is a sight to be seen!
• If you’re a regular tailgater, and often find you and 20 of your closest friends bbq-ing it up outside the stadium or arena, then the Party-to-Cargo kegerator is probably right up your alley! This trailer-hitch mounted box holds a keg (that’s about 160 beers folks), and features a complete audio system, perfect for setting the party mood or blasting the pre-game show.
• We headed over to Benchmark Motoring last Friday for their annual summer BBQ kick-off event for some burgers, dogs, and hot hot cars. Benchmark always manages to fill their parking lot with many Lambos, Porsches, Ferraris, BMWs – all available for guests to drool over, some with beautifully stealthy audio installs too! We’ve got a full gallery of photos over at SoundDomain! Oh yeah, and don’t forget to check out Benchmark’s customized flatbed hauler!
• Has anybody every screwed up your car during an audio install? Drilled the gas tank? Shot through an airbag sensor? Sliced a wiring harness? It happens, sometimes too often. Got a horror story of your own? Share it!
• Scrapin’ the Coast had a bunch of lowriders, tuner cars, hot rods, and old schools, but this high riser Cadillac Fleetwood limo floored me! Loaded up with a complete MB Quart audio system and 32" LCD, this is one way to roll in unique style!

I decided to step away from cars this weekend (or so I thought), and instead headed north for some roughing it in the mountains. But it seems no matter where you go, no matter how far from civilization you get, you’re still never far from a car enthusiast. My buddy and I came down from the mountains to find a cell phone signal and possibly grab some breakfast, when we stumbled on a small collection of cars outside of the Green Gables General Store in Robe, Washington. The first was a beautifully restored 1935 Ford Touring Sedan, a great old Ford pick-up (which I assume is also around a ’35 to ’40), and custom-built Salt Flat Lakester race car. Yeah, completely random, completely in the middle of nowhere. But again, it goes to show that you can find a car enthusiast pretty much anywhere.

Follow the jump to check out more photos and details of these incredible cars!

Continue reading "What Did You Do This Weekend?" »

• Elemental Designs is closing out their 13Kv.2 D4 and this is one smoking deal. If you need a sub (or two or six) then don’t pass this  – $50 for a quality sub is not something you see everyday!
• Ben was judging competition sound quality cars at the Tuner Evolution show in York, PA, but in his spare time he snapped off a bunch of pics and we have three galleries live on the site!
• Mr. Mobile is back with another installment of "I Want That", and this time we get the details on the Zoombak GPS tracking device. This portable "big brother" can be used to track the location of you car, dog, motorcycle, whatever you need!
• Old school  car audio equipment always  has a soft spot in the hearts of enthusiasts.  Whether it’s that first car stereo, the amplifier you saved all summer to buy, or just a sexy subwoofer you never could quite afford but finally sold enough pints of blood to add it to your arsenal, sometimes you don’t have need an excuse, or even a use for it, you just want to have it. What’s in your collection? Check out what’s in ours!
• Steve Meade has become somewhat of a legend here on CarDomain and SoundDomain. There aren’t too many people who have had the opportunity to play with Rockford Fosgate’s legendary and almost mythical T15kW amplifiers (You know, the $25,000, 15,000 watt powerhouses?), So what makes these monsters so amazing? Steve hooked us up with a video featuring the amplifier’s design engineer breaking down the details.

• Boston Acoustics announced they’re shipping their SPG555 Passive Radiator system. Adding this to your Boston SPG’s subwoofer box gets you an extra 3dB of bass. May not sound like much, but to your ears that’s almost twice as much bass!!
• So you want to share some music from your iPod with your buddy, but since the iPod is an iPod and not a Zune, you can’t do it…. That is unless you have a miShare!
• Multifunction rearview mirrors are not new, but with all the technology that’s coming to market lately, these things can do just about anything shot of walking of dog or getting you a cold one from the fridge!! They’re not always the most attractive add-ons for your car, but does it matter?
• I’m sure you’ve seen all the commercial on TV telling you that your normal cable and rabbit ears will quit working in early 2009; you need to upgrade to a digital box. But did you realize this also means your car stereo system’s TV tuner is going kaput too? That means new things are the horizon for mobile digital TV. Welcome to the new mobile TV format wars!
• SoundDomain would like to welcome our newest guestblogger, Adam Rayner! Adam comes to us from across the pond, and is the online editor for the UK’s famous Talk Audio website. He has quite a history in the mobile electronics industry and of course, we’re looking forward to sampling his sarcastic British sens of humor!

• More Steve Meade: Rapper Young Ren tha Muddville King stopped by Steve’s to sample his new CD on the Tahoe’s monster sound system, and of course, they had to get the "true test" caught on film– the Hair Trick!
• e-Ink is the latest digital display technology and can be found in devices like Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader. But this tech is posed to really work well in the automotive environment for things like alarm remotes and radio displays because it it’s thinner, flexible, and be cut into odd shapes. Just check out this cool looking alarm remote from Delphi.
• True car audio geeks consider their future car audio upgrades when shopping for a new car. Have you ever considered your future upgrades when shopping for a new car?
• Us older guys like to reminisce about the "good ‘ol days" of car audio. Recently Ben had a chance to wax nostalgia with this Suburban’s old-school inspired install featuring some true hardcore old school SQ gear from McIntosh.