But the best part of this exhibition was definitely the Chevy Sonic Boom. It’s a normal Chevy Sonic (you may know the Sonic from OK Go’s Needing/Getting music video that played during the Super Bowl) with a spiffy matte paint job and a frighteningly large sound system. To illustrate just how big this sound setup is, the Sonic is a small four seater. the Sonic Boom has only two seats because the entire backseat and trunk is taken up by sound equipment. This tiny car is packed out with two 15-inch subwoofers, 18 speakers and tweeters, two subwoofer amps, four 4-channel mid and high amps, and a signal processor. This may all sound like random numbers and mumbo jumbo, but suffice it to say that’s a lot of sound power. While it seems a little ridiculous, it’s only a concept so far, and won’t be available for a while, if ever.
There weren’t many cars worth writing about, but if you visit the fair and dig deep enough, there might just be a few gems beneath the mass of unexciting trucks and vans.