The first national-level competition car.
Way back when, before capacitor banks, compression drivers or 15-inch
woofers were ever linked to cars in even the most expansive imagination, there
was Wayne Harris and his
Buick Regal, called "Eruption." The name was accurate.
Although by today's standards it was no louder than the street cruisers heard on
a Los Angeles Saturday night, Eruption was truly the erupting force back in
1984. People would come from miles to watch quarters bounce three inches off the
roof. Video crews would zoom in for prime-time news coverage of this
one-of-a-kind car, which was also the first to win a national-level competition.
"Eruption" - circa 1984 - Note the large bar-graph
level meters in the side windows.
Back in 1984, when it was entered in the first annual national sound-off in
Texas, Eruption boasted the very first Rockford Fosgate Power 650 amplifiers in
its trunk, with a hoard of capacitors lined up to keep the current-hungry
amplifiers well fed. Sometimes, after hard sessions, the amps would get so hot
that Wayne actually had to take them apart and re-solder the components.
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The prizes were good back then: Wayne's award for winning a "national"
event in 1985 was a brand new Chevy S-10 truck. This was by all means an
impressive award for an event only a few years old, and it spurred Wayne on to
his next project, which is still alive somewhere today – the
Terminator.
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One of the most famous car stereo rides to have ever surfaced, the
Terminator – a 1960 Cadillac hearse – had dual 190-amp alternators,
three custom 24-inch sub-woofers, eight 12-inch woofers and six Rockford Power
1000s. The Terminator also contained the earliest form of what Rockford now
calls Symmetry.
Although Wayne didn't go to work for Rockford
until years after the Terminator was built, he had always carried around the
idea of a system that was modular and all-encompassing. The hand-made system in
the Terminator rapidly evolved into one of the most sophisticated units
available on the market today.
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Eruption's Power Control Panel was used to "pre-charge" the system's large capacitor bank. Note the
three LED bargraph charge-level meters.
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Note the original Rockford Fosgate "Bipolar" 650. Only 50 of these amps were ever made. The blue "cans"
on the right comprise Eruption's capacitor bank. Eruption originated the"stiffening-capacitor"
concept!
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Both Eruption and the Terminator stand as early examples of how car-stereo
competition has proved instrumental in furthering the evolution of great
products, like the Rockford Symmetry System. While many people look at
competition as a way to pass time, others, like Wayne Harris, see it as an
opportunity to expand the envelope of sound technology.
Eruption Video
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Watch Eruption "do its thing" in
this 30 second video clip from the Texas Tales segment of a local Dallas TV
newcast. (Eruption.avi - 745K - download time approximately 5 minutes at 28.8.)
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