East London schoolboy Reagan van Greunen brought home the national trophy last weekend for having the loudest car sound system in his category.
He won the NitroCrew SA Record Event national finals in the stock one category.
This is a competition between car sound enthusiasts to see who has the loudest sound system.
In the stock one category a competitor is allowed to have two 10-inch subs (a loudspeaker unit designed to produce extremely low-frequency bass sounds), two batteries (one in the front and another in the back of the vehicle) and an amplifier as large as the batteries can support.
Reagan, who won the regional event in his category, has all this packed into a tiny white 1998 Corsa Lite GSI.
In the competition a decibel reader is placed on the inside of a car’s windscreen, all doors and windows of the car are closed to prevent any loss of pressure and the volume is controlled from outside the car.
Even when not playing at full blast when one sticks their head into the car they can literally feel the pressure and vibrations created by the sound system.
There are, overall, 19 categories. These categories are determined by the sound equipment which is installed in the car.
While in Durban, where the national event was held, Reagan recorded an eardrum-bursting 153db. This is louder than a jet engine which, when in flight, averages between 120-140db.
Reagan said he did not know if he would compete next year due to the high costs of participating in the sport. He did concede that if someone were to break his record, which he says would be “really difficult”, he would compete again.
Edward van Greunen, Reagan’s dad, said: “The first SA competition was here in East London. He broke a record with a 149.5db. Then [the competition moved on to] Joburg but we did not go to Joburg.
“We went to Cape Town for the semifinals with a new box we built for that competition and Reagan broke the record set in Joburg with a 151.5db,” said Van Greunen...