Speakerworks Grand National

[GNnPH]

Been reading this section for awhile now- long time USAC and IASCA fan here- and was hoping somebody still had the article from way back when, the undefeated GN of Richard Clark. This guy was so ahead of the time it wasn't even funny- unfortunately he decided to retire the thing before I could check it out at one of the many shows- the install may be extreme for most, but paying $8,ooo doesn't sound bad for some horns. <G> Thanks in advance

[mcss383]

I've seen a page for it.....but I can't find it now....

Have you ever been to www.carsound.com? RC has a forum there (along with David Navone and several other very well known names). Check it out!

[GNnPH]

mcss383- Carsound is a pretty good mag, nice site- notice which car is on the cover? Bigg's Regal- I've seen this car over the last six or seven years at the finals develop with different installs, all caught on video- I'd say he outdone himself this time, one sweet ride, could easily win best of show- kinda biased towards the buicks though. <G> The interior on this Buick is somethin to be seen also, top notch craftsmanship- pretty much all custom, super clean vinyl work, and fiberglass that looks factory. Only thing I didn't like was that he replaced the ole v6 with an 8- oh well, can't please everybody.

[mcss383]

Yeah Audiowizard from here is good friends with Bigg's. He's the one that sold him the Regal!

Also see the "Mr Wizard your famous" if u haven't been there already.

[Audiowizard]

I miss that car but I am glad its in good hands and not turned into a "pimp" ride . He replaced the N/A V-6 with a 500 hp 383 so I think the swap was a good choice. He sold the V-6 to a guy and now it is in a plane flying around Texas .

Gary may be coming down this week end to visit me and he wants to go visit our old stomping grounds and raise some cane like old times........ .

[mcss383]

well I hope you mean College Station.......

[Audiowizard]

Is that anywhere near Lawton, Ok ? Its only 50 minutes from Wichita Falls. If I had time, I would swing by with Gary and visit. I also am in the process of building a subwoofer cabinet and custom door pods for Scott4DMoney on the board and I will be needing as much of my limited time as possible to work on them. You should see the RF Punch DVC 12" dual voice coil subs he sent me, they are beasts and they weigh as much or more than my 3 year old daughter .

[GNnPH]

You guys don't have any idea what back issue it was?- thought it was in Car Audio and Car Stereo Review a ways back, Clarks GN that is.
Was hoping to chat with Biggs about his ride but I always seemed to catch em when he was locking it up or getting ready to be judged, so I didn't want to bug em about it.

So that's how you guys come up with these crazy installs in TX- "One tequila, two tequila, three tequila floor!" lol

[Audiowizard]

If you want to get ahold of Gary, just private message me and I will give you his e-mail address. He is a real cool guy and very helpful. I had someone from the board want me to build them some custom door pods and I was unable to because I had surgury and I was out of commission for 2 weeks so I had them contact Gary and he built them the door pods for him. We started out doing custom installs together back in the late 80s and Gary was way ahead of his time with his radical ideas plus he tripped everyone out by building a motorized amp rack with an all threaded rod and an electric seat motor.

Speaking of Tequila, ask Gary about my new years eve parties .

[salvageV6]

Hmmm, I had Altec horns and a 165 watt Zapco Amplifier to run them and the 15" Altec woofers in my old Olds Cutlas back in 1978.

Replaced them with JBL bullet tweeters in 1980, much smaller.

A little bright but then again most horns are. Had a nice 7 band Kenwood equalizer back then too. Kenwood had some good head units with good radios back then.


The true Pioneers in car stereo started in the early to mid 70's in MHO.

Yup, Richard Clark's install was impeccable and of course the perfect car for sure.

[Rollin]

I had the pleasure of hearing this car back in the day when I was starting out as a short lived rep for RF( I started my own C.A. business). For a simple system it flat worked, Wave guides up front, 12's in the rear sides and 15's in the back. USD stuff worked and still rocks. I modeled one of my cars after it using HCCA Orion stuff, the wave guides are what set it off
Heres a pic of the SpeakerWorks Buick:

[salvageV6]

I am pretty sure it had a time aligned crossover in it.

That is especially important with crossing over horns and woofers.

Hard to use the voice coils in the same plane method when of course they aren't.... LOL.

Electronic crossovers with phase and time alignment have come a long way since the early 70's.

[Turbo Riviera]

I have an old issue of Car Audio & Electronics that has the Clark/SW GN in it... Geez it must have been a late 1993 or early 1994 issue.

Hard to believe that the install was that far ahead of it's time!

I actually have a NOS Buick radio delete panel that I was going to pattern after the folding faceplate that it had for the deck. Picked it up from a guy in Canada a few years back. Not something you see everyday!

[darkfa8]

Tim, I'm interested in seeing those articles too. If you could email them to me or put them up on a ftp or a site for download just let me know and I'll go grab them.

thanks,