Hello there all.

Me and my mate was having this discussion regarding car audio SPL Competions. There seems to be a general impression that if you win a competion, you only get a trouphy, no problems there but it is for the beginners that raises the issue.

Firstly, if you don't win, you don't even get a little recognition anywhere, and not even a free entry to encourage you return to the next competion.

Ok, maybe the winners should get that so they come back to the next competition but what I am saying is the sport needs to grow and the way it is heading, there is no future in entering SPL competitions.

I for one, have been in the sport since the late 80's and have seen a lot of cars, demo vehicles and other car audio shows and since then the industry has been dying down rapidly.(in NSW)

Perhaps the organisers or the show sponsors should take more formal approach like offering discounts to competitors for their participation or give hand outs such as promotional material such as t-shirts etc.

I cannot take my car to big car shows since my car is not a "pretty car" so that leaves me out by far, so I think the organisers should do more to promote the sport before in dies down in NSW. I know it is big in QLD.

Besides not many car audio shops promote the sport due to recent noise abation laws and hardly any car audio shop has a "demo vehicle".

Thats my two cents opinion on the matter.


What do you guys and gals think??

I think you should read the other 2 threads
http://www.caraudioaustralia.com/forums/in...showtopic=70301
and
http://www.caraudioaustralia.com/forums/in...showtopic=71091

Ok, you got me, but the issue of promoting the sport still remains regardless. The promoters are all tight!

Yes we know this but we are working on it

I have to pipe up for this one, as a show organiser/founder (CAASQ) and having run both sanctioned and non-sanctioned dB Drag Racing events myself.

Its all very well to sit back on a keyboard and make claims like "the organisers are tight" and so on, and that dB Drag Racing is dying. But as you have been around the scene since the late 80's I ask the question of you... What have you done to promote dB Drag Racing? What can you do to help? Have you offered assistance in any way? I'm not having a go, just wanting to point out to people that the onus lies on the competitor base as well.

Why? Because we do this as a passion. Not as a business. No one makes money from dB Drag Racing and / or CAASQ SQ Competition. It can't make money - the industry and enthusiast interest is not enough to justify any sort of approach that can make money. Therefore, predominantly it is run by volunteers, and only supported by a handful of industry members / shops / distributors.

What more can be done? I mean .. what more can be really done?

Again, I don't mean to single you out or have a go at you, just typing as I think and I am obviously passionate about this. Some of my frustrations with this lack of support, lack of interest etc have been aired by me many times on the forums over the years. I have structured CAASQ so that here in VIC, Dan in QLD, and Marty in NSW can put these events on, pay judges a token fee for their time, and hopefully with trophies for 1st and 2nd and a few showbags they break even. Which at the end of the day still means most involved in the whole aspect are still "volunteering" their time.

Which again, then brings me back to 'what more can be done'?.

Its a shame and I would love nothing more than to organise / host an event like the Car Audio Nationals days, of that calibre, amount of people, prizes, prize money etc and so on but sadly I feel those days are long gone.

Car Audio is a changed marketplace and industry.

I'll stick my nose in aswell, I noticed that a drop off in numbers when the term lab stuff superceeded the audio control metering - seems people didn't like the lower readings etc, just didn't look as impressive from a bystander POV.

We need it euro style.
Pole dancers, etc to bring in the spectators.

Thank you all for the feedback so far.

Yes, Marc, you have done alot in OZ and I commend you for your efforts and for volunteering your precious time in doing this, sorry I have not done that myself. I am not having a go at the CAA members but rather the organisers who can do a whole lot more into promoting car audio events.

We often have articles on tv shows like " today tonight" regarding boys and their "loud toys" terrorising the neighbourhood as they put it. I think all Car audio shops should practise "safe sound" and implement customers to enter car shows and promote their gear, they can also offer discounts for selected items during the car show events.

I know and have many friends who will never dare to enter shows for the fear of their cars being targeted by thieves. I, for one, park my car to the train station so I am sorry I cannot put a" car audio shops" sticker on my windscreen for the the same reason.

Having entered a few car shows I could see the "newbies" being dissapointed and never return to enter competitions again for this reason. The promoters charge for the event but if you don't qualify, you just go home empty handed and heart broken. There is nothing else to "pull " you to go back and do it again, but only the passion and just your drive to do better.

Hope I did not offend anyone cause this topic is only directed to the promoters of the shows.

Best regards.

they promote it when they have time
u should be grateful
they dnt evene have to do it
they aint gettn money out of it as marc said so i dnt think u should complain
theres only so much they can do
if more shops ran spl n sq days itll help but blaming the promoters aint gonna help

Both Devinchy and i agree with Marc but its not only the lack of interest in the CAASQ, Its felt right throughout the sport including dB Drag and as for making money, I know from our side of things it cost us money to compete.
For us to go to a show this is the break down of cost
1/ Organise a chef to run our buissness while we are gone to compete. $180.00 for the 6 hours
2/ Hirage of a car trailer $120.00
3/ Fuel for all 3 car which includes the tow car $120.00
4/ Entry to compete $120.00
total cost of $540.00
times this cost by a full year of competing and we do go to nearly every show in NSW, Without the cost of the systems that go into the cars
Don't get me wrong i am not complaining if I didn't love the sport I wouldn't do it
But I do want to promote it. Thats why when a newbie as they call them, compete's against us seasoned competitor's we should encourage and share our knowledge so they can also get louder. If it was that easy to get loud then there would be no competion. It takes time and yes money which you never get back.
But name one non-sponsored sport you break even in.
I think the organisers of both events need more than a pat on the back they give up time and money to hold these events so we can compete, And have fun, But if anyone should be held accountable for the lack of support in the the sport the blame should fall on the magazines for there lack of coverage and the individuals who act like spoilt kids who want an easy win and if they dont get it they run away not to return because they didn't get their own way.

we try and promote it by using our termlab for beginners etc, man just chill trja and devinchi will have it crankin again im sure

if ur in nsw come to the tune day see nsw

That is a very good point. You have to remember these are normally non-profit organisations.

i would gladyly pay some extra coin so teh event organisers can promote. ie: put in 5bucks say at one event. that goes into the kitty so they can promote the next event and so on and so forth. teh ball keeps rolling
as for people just starting out. yes they do get dissapointed about the low scores and dont bother to come back and try and improve. not sure how to rectify this. i think that just depends on where they want to go in regards to spl.

if somebody rocks up, thinkin they will break some records, and get s score of 120dB then chances are they will not stick around, because they have no idea....they are the "strathfield and JB all the way" blokes.the people who turn up and score 130, then turn up at the next one and get 145 are the real competitors....

Spot on there! Maybe something like an encouragement award could be given, like it is in CAASQ.

The last few Autobarn and Harrys events I've been to have have as many as 40+ competitors and hundreds of spectators.........

Stores need to look at the big picture. Events bring in new business: Low entry costs = new business.

Phil

Run dB Drag along side Bass Race

Its cheap, doesn't require a whole lot of SPL based knowledge, budget doesn't have any real effect on the results as each class can be won by any joe blow that can control the volume knob properly.

Then these people would then witness what dB Drag Racing is like and be more inclined to have a go.

Lower entry prices for dB Drag would be good, but the only way I could see that happening was if retailers/distributors/manufacturers were to get on board and really support the competition scene by providing trophies, vouchers, discounts, things like lucky door prizes, giveaways etc.

Because at the end of the day, holding an SPL comp isn't cheap and has to be paid for some how, but atleast by getting the industry to foot the bill and get some extra exposure we can reduce the out of pocket expenses that are being worn by guys like Marc and Dan.

i admitt myself from trying to run SPL events and was running the events at a loss each time like other may have with the sport. but that never bothered me as we had people that were'nt regular competitors entering the events, some of which have now become regular competitors to SPL.

but yeah i have only been in the sport a year and no matter what will try get as many people as i can joining the sport every chance i get.

with reguard to trying to get more shops involved and getting behind the sport with future events i hope to hold, i have been approaching stores to see if they're willing to donate audio gear to be raffled off and money given to charrities. that way some people that dont even compete have chances of winning set-ups and the attraction that a person has a chance of winning a nice stereo set-up and may become competitors.

but yeah there is many ways to make the sport grow its just putting in the hard yards and the time that becomes hard for some people. like myself with a broken hand and off from working at the moment. i have alot of time spare to do anything i can do to help. but this is hard thing is managing to find the time.

we can all say we will do this and do that but no matter what it is hard for everyone to find time sometimes. but i definately give praise to all that do help and try help the sport THOSE PEOPLE KNOW WHO THEY ARE.

but yeah complaining about it doesnt really do anything lets get more proactive about it instead.

thats my cents worth cheers

The Numbers in Australia are getting higher...
number of people doing and getting mighty close to the 150 in street classes are rising...
Australia is getting louder and your average Joe turns up and gets Beat.. so they don't want to come back.. i say we need to give out encouragement awards and best score considering equipment type thing to get people back... loudest street sedan... but also to push the sport to another level they need to fork out the time and money to get as loud....
think about it like this.,.... as much as you may like to think otherwise people like to win... the reason i see from the decline when we started using the lab instead of the old meter was because people started taking it more seriously and numbers went up.. back in 2002 i competed and scored 138(old meter) and came 4th(was a decent score back then)....
but now that would hit maybe a 135 of the lab.. i had 2 10" woofers and a 1.25kw monoblock... not what i would consider a good number with that gear now.
In most "sports" you have divisions.... ie 1-2-3... in db drag there isn't any...

one class i think could be added maybe if anyone wants to see angelo bout it is have a street sedan class for people like commodore owners and other types of sedans think this would be an idea to consider

we just need a plain old "street" class, where your avergae joe can come and compete, and not worry about being screwed by the big boys.....its been mentioned in another thread....

I'm from NZ so my post may not be to relevant but my comments are:

1) dBdrag has to many classes - is overly complex system for the day's running and generally needs a good tidy up. A newbie can't expect to win, but what they should be encouraged to get louder than their mates, and grow them from there.

2) Promotion is the key, in our city (300,000 people) we had 50 competetors turn up for a well publicised SPL event (non dBdrag). Then later on in the year the 4 & Rotary/dBdrag run SPL comp only drew 5 enteries.

3) Regular well organised events. I've turned upto dBdrag organised events only to find they've been cancelled and the competetiors were not informed. This is a real big pissa and has since put me on high alert for any dBdrag run events. I will still attend, but if it happens again i'll be out of the game and not promote the sport in anyway.

4) If you offer prizes for the winners bloody well give them to them. I won by a whooping 8dB at the last SPL event i attended. Advertised prize was $250 cash for the loudest car. I got the trophy (which was nice), but no sign of the money, event organiser ignored my attempts at contacting them... which again means i will not attend any event organised by this group.

On a good note, we've got a comp this weekend - will be good to see how it goes - two new walled cars (ours and a local stores) and hopefully some other surprises.

this is hard to do
one reason - is im classed as an average joe its just i chose to spend more money on my system instead of my car. i installed built and did everything on my car myself just like probably most people in the sport with no outside help. because i do 151's does it make me one of the big boys.
a year ago i started out doing 138db for my first ever reading and my first ever comp was 145's.
its just i chose to put the yards and money in to make my car louder. but yeah im an average joe.

second reason - having a class for ya average joe to come compete could open up a can of worms to people then getting upset as what is deamed as ya average joe. for reasons i stated above as well.

only said this as an average joe is more or less half of the competitors in the sport.

but i do think their could be a sedan class as there is enough cars comming to events now to form a sedan street class say an example being street S (S= sedan) street S could just follow same regularions as street C only add on to the regulations would be that all subs must be placed in the boot of the car.

How does that help the sport champ?? You just had a go at two of the biggest retailers!!
These are the guys that we need to inject some interest in this sport..
Stratfield used to run Db events years ago and they had some decent turn outs.
Im a " JB all the way" boy and im doing 154 on the term lab and im always encouriging our customers to bring their cars to the show. Now what will make em come back if they are made fun of by guy's like you?
What we need in this sport is people on their high horses makin fun at the young new comers who wanna come out and see what they can do against the big guy's.
Iv seen so many guy's turned off the sport cause of people makin fun of their set up's.
Improvements should start coming from within the people in the sport before it will grow.
Lets all start havin a look at our selves before we blame everyone else under the sun...

i agree with some of ewhat ya have said "SOUNDS GOOD"
but i have found stratties and jaycar and some of the other big name electronics and car audio shops have store and company policies now that do not allow them to do this sort of thing anymore. and a lot of little shops now days are in areas where noise polution laws stop them holding events.

but that is one point you made people do make fun of little set-ups i have seen it many times where people have said why do they even bother but we and many other people in the sport are trying to stamp that out when its heard and deal with these types of people but no matter what it will always happen all sports have people like this no matter what. its us that have to encourage them and just take them under wings and help them out to keep the little new guys comming back for more each time.

Until there are enough competitors in each class to actually need to do qualifications and full rounds of eliminations I'd forget about trying to create more classes, there isn't enough to fill the classes we have, let alone to go creating extra, unneccessary classes. (especially classes dependant on the type of vehicle u drive, cos why should people competing in sedans be treated any differently to those in other types of cars?)

There are 2 other divisions that were created........Mini Street and Bass Race, I can personally see Bass Race getting us the competitor base we need to move forward with dB Drag Racing in Australia.

Its easy enough for anyone to have a shot at and will give them a taste of SPL.

The seriously bitten guys and girls will make an effort to get loud (and we will help them) and probably move up to Street A/B/C classes and those who simply enjoyed the experience will hopefully come back and continue to have fun in Bass Race.

As a competitor (well I will be one again once my Z1s arrive ) I have (like others) invested alot of time and money into a car for SPL, I will help anyone who wants the help, I dont care if they are in SM1-2 and +/- .1 db from my own score, I will help them out, because thats what will help the sport to grow.

yeah agree with the BASS RACE idea there having a bass race down our way eventually at a non sanctioned event to give it a try. but yeah bass race surely would make it more even for everyone. but still be hard running two event and just add bit more to costs cause still also would need to run true SPL aswell.

can say autobarn comps bring the crowds.....autobarn browns plains a fortnight ago surely did....however if u want to compare it to Bundall lasts nite....there was about 1/4 to 1/3 of the competitors....and maybe 1/5 of the spectators......despite it being of a very similar nature

i did the same score as i did two weeks ago to get first and got third last nite......there were three in my class last night, and like ten the time when i got first....ok so not the most encouraging thing....BUT....the only reason im not sooking off into a corner is because i know that i can improve......there's the bottom line.......and not just by buying more stuff (another amp and swapping my 3512 for 2x9910s is o so tempting, but unfeasible at this stage lol)......but by making changes to my current setup

what we need is a section squared off, with a couple of the more experience folk (perhaps a few, rotating throughout the night) who are willing to donate a bit of their time and knowledge....telling guys how they can improve.

ok , finish ur run and get 135.x....disappointed because me in my little piece o sh!t celica beat u with a 140.........now.....wander over to these couple of advisors....present them ur system and hear their opinions........and im not talking about these guys being told to go and spend another grand...just simple things like the way the box is facing in the car, the box its in....etc etc.....and even some explanation as to why their sedan didnt score so well, despite them having all the necessary gear

hand out a couple of CAA flyers so they can come back to the site and have a read if they like(which i'd be happy to get organised too...nothing real fancy, but 1/3 of an A4 page is enough room to put down the URL etc...as well as even promoting upcoming events)

my bit.....hope it makes sense

I agree with you on both points...
Council's hate anythin that disturbs the peace especially Sydney!!!!
Iv had major issues in Parramatta when we used to hold car sound days and nights with jb's.
And lets not waste energy discouriging people and makin feel bad for bringing out their cars.

we could hold some events in my backyard!

Lol... Tried it once, neighbours from 15 houses away complained about their vases falling off the tables..