How many Taco owners compete or competed?

Just like it says, who here currently competes or has competed in car audio present or past?

If you have, I may know some of you old timers

I will go first.

My first year of competition was in 1985, which I went on to win State and got an invitation to the world finals in which I finished 6th in my class.
I met some great people over the years including Wayne Harris, Alma Gates etc. which I kept in touch with Alma for many years and many others.

I competed from 1985 to 2000, in my last year I won state in SPL and went on to the world finals and I think it was a 4th place finish that year, had it not been for a head unit skipping that I changed out just before world, I would have finished 1st or 2nd.

I competed in many different vehicles through the years but my favorite competition vehicle was my 98 Taco Xtra cab.

I put in my sons 1st system several years ago when I gave him his 1st car, after turning on his newly installed system, which was made up of Fosgate and Orion amps and Orion and MB Quart speakers, I have never seen him smile so much in his entire life when he sat down and heard the clarity and the feel of the bass. He fried a voice coil or two since then but every now and then I will go out and sit in his car and remember the good ole days of sitting in my own vehicles experiencing 150+ Db`s.

My son has tried many times to get me to get back into competition but I truely do not have the time thesedays to travel all over like I used to. Several years ago I gave all of my trophy`s to the local handicap facility to reuse once they put new name tags on them to give the trophy`s to the handicap kids at different events that they have. The only one that I kept was the last state plaque that I won.

Dont laugh but my 01 Taco still has the same stock am/fm cd player that it came with. LOL

Yes, Im an old fart now but I still appreciate a good sounding car audio system.

Now that I have shared my past, please share your current or past audio experience.

IF YA CANT CRANK IT, YANK IT.

 

I did but I'm too tired to elaborate tonight. Will update sometime tomorrow. SPL with Team Creative Acoustics for a period of time (with Jay) but mostly SQ stuff locally. Was in the business from 95 to 05 when I transitioned over to home audio/theater.

 

I didn't have the money for the systems back when I was younger, but I did help friends get THEIR rigs set up and going. I can still remember when there were only 3 different "orders" of sub boxes. I do remember the Orion amps though! I had a friend with an 89 Toyota "extra cab" that had a custom built sub box with 4 12" subs and a pair of Orion 1000 Watt amplifiers. Of course those are small by today's standards, but in 1989, a 1000W amp was almost 18" long! We had a fellow cruiser in Denton who had a nice Camaro built up. The car was aptly named "Earthquake". THAT car would make the Sonic Drive-in shake. I miss those days.

 

Greenville SC world finals was the last time I saw Jay but I talked to him on the phone the following year.

Over the last 12 to 13 years I have lost touch with many.
I think the last Christmas card I got from Alma was about 6 or 7 years ago, Im not sure if she is still kicking. I tried to locate her in the Tempe AZ area several years ago, I hope she is ok.

Im trying to remember Kyle`s name from MTX, he had an old Yota p/u, early 80s model, he also had his MTX samurai at the shows in the late 90s.

Sad news, I just read where Alma passed away in march of 2013

 

I havent competed with my Taco yet cause I havent built the system, but I competed with my Genesis Coupe I owned before my Taco. Arc Audio amps and Morel speakers.
The truck is going to get the same treatment, Arc Amps and processor and Hybrid Audio woofers and speakers.

 

Never really competed, but when I had my old Pontiac Firefly, I used to participate in local events. Had two MTX 10" subs with a Phoenix Gold 1000w amp, and an Orion 4 channel for an active 2-way front setup. Nothing fancy, and I never won anything, but it was fun to compete and show off the setup. Not sure if I plan on entering anything with my Taco, time will tell. First thing is I want to get my ported box setup going, I cut the front baffle for the subs, and the holes were too big. So, I have to pull the baffle off, and rebuild with a new baffle. Going to try a different method this time, since I can't find my circle jig. Oh well, live and learn.