Back when we were in high school, “bass-offs” — contests where teenagers with pumped up car stereo sound systems would compete to see whose car could reach the loudest volume — were a really big deal. And apparently they still are, but now they’re called dB (as in decibel) drag racing, at least according to this article from Popular Science. The dB drag racer pictured at left has a Dodge Caravan with a 130,000 watt car stereo system with 72 amplifiers and nine subwoofers and needs 36 batteries for power. At maximum volume it can produce sounds loud enough to kill a person. Putting this in the “Portable Audio” category might be a stretch, as the car is so heavy that it can’t actually be driven.
