Car audio competition began when enthusiasts tested sound quality, installation skill, and output. By the 1970s, the automobile had already become a platform for personal expression. People modified engines.   Customized paint.  Lowered suspension.  Built interiors.  Competed at drag strips and displayed their cars at shows.  Next, another part of the vehicle started changing.  The sound system.  Initially, the goal was simple.  Make the music sound better.  But car enthusiasts rarely leave a perfectly reasonable idea alone.                                                                      

The earliest automobile shows celebrated the machine.  Manufacturers brought their newest vehicles. Engineers demonstrated new technologies. Elegant automobiles were judged for craftsmanship and design.  Then car enthusiasts did something manufacturers couldn't control.  They started changing everything. By the middle of the twentieth century, a new question was spreading through American car culture. It was no longer simply: What car do you drive? It was: What did you do to it?