The volume controls on Marko Lönngren's car stereo go up to eleven

The world's loudest in-car loudspeakers turn out 177.9 decibels

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By Tuomo Väliaho
     
      You can encounter the phenomenon often enough on a weekend walk through the city: a car drawn up at traffic lights - probably high-mileage, possibly tuned, almost certainly alloy wheels - with the sounds of rock or a techno beat emanating from the inside. The decibels make the windows pulsate in time with the bass, and the furry dice hanging from the rear-view mirror swing from side to side.
      Marko Lönngren of Vantaa has taken this time-honoured pursuit to a completely new plane: when the stereo system in his Volvo 245 is cranked up full, there is no going inside the car, whether you are human or even a set of furry dice.
      The 32 amplifiers in Lönngren's car-audio system generate around 150,000 watts: the end result pushed out through the 16 speakers is a sound pressure of 177.9 dB.
     
"The furry dice would be no more; they'd morph into little balls. And any human unwise enough to be in there would wind up as an unrecognisable stain on the dashboard", says 32-year-old Lönngren by way of describing the savage forces unleashed in the vehicle.
      "Once we put a 30-kg battery inside the car and wound the speakers up to 170 dB. The battery was floating in the air."
     
Marko Lönngren is a multiple European Champion and world record-holder in his category in the sport known as dB Drag Racing. Decibel drag racing pits competitors against each other to determine who can develop the biggest sound pressure inside the car.
      Lönngren picked up his latest world record in the United States in October 2005, in Cleveland, Ohio, at the dB Drag World Finals.
      The big black Volvo competes - naturally - in the "Extreme 5+" category, the equivalent of the super-heavyweights.
      "There we set a new record of 177.9 dB, but the old measuring sensors wouldn't go any higher. After the competition we took the car into the workshop and ran it with new sensors to a pressure of over 180 dB", says Lönngren proudly, though this "practice result" does not count as a record.
     
The car is so well sound-insulated that one can hardly hear any of the deafening noise outside of the vehicle.
      On the surface, Lönngren's car looks much like a rather chunky black Volvo, but the body has been reinforced with steel all round. Hence the station wagon weighs in at an impressive 10,000 kilos.
      "A normal car body would simply explode at these pressures. This is like a tank on wheels. If we had a collision with a truck-trailer combination, then God help the truck", shrugs Lönngren.
      The very idea of such a happening is nevertheless theoretical, since the decibel-Volvo is not a street machine.
     
"According to the rule-book, it must be possible to drive the car [20 feet, or around 6 metres] to the start-line at the competition venue.. With a stock motor and on an even road surface, I'd guess you could probably get about 10 km/hour out of the Volvo, if you dare."
      "If you dare" is an appropriate choice of words, for there is no steering wheel in the vehicle, nor any of the other necessary accoutrements for driving: the car is moved the required distances using a remote-controller.
     
The dB drag racing hobby is by no means cheap, especially not at this elevated "world's loudest" level: around EUR 100,000 have gone into auto parts, and this sum does not include above a thousand hours of work. Just the 10cm thick windscreen, which weighs 135 kg, cost a hefty EUR 8,000.
      "This is the most expensive Volvo.in the world. Fortunately, for years now I have not had to pay for things out of my own pocket. My employer Flextron sponsors building the car and taking part in competitions.", explains Lönngren, who has been in dB drag racing for ten years.
      His employer rather unsurprisingly manufactures auto hi-fi systems.
     
So why would someone want to crank up their colossal car stereo system as loud as possible? Does this make any sense at all?
      Lönngren ponders the question for a moment, and then throws back a counter-question:
      "Why drive drag racing competitions? Or Formula One? Or why would any lunatic want to ride 600 kilometres on a bicycle?"
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 5.2.2006

More on this subject:
 BACKGROUND: Sounds in decibels
 FACTFILE: Drag racing in decibels

Links:
  SPL Dynamics (Flextron)

TUOMO VÄLIAHO / Helsingin Sanomat
tuomo.valiaho@hs.fi