All student teams must be sponsored by their high school and have the permission of their principal in order to participate. In addition, they will need to be sponsored by a local car stereo retailer who is a member of IASCA.

Several local retailers in the Charlotte area have already committed their time, staff, and vehicles to the project. Each retailer will make a presentation to high school officials in their local area to seek support of this educational opportunity for students enrolled in wood shop, drafting, mathematics and electronics classes.

Vehicle Criteria:

Donated vehicles can be sourced by the participating school or retailer. They must be of a sub-compact hatchback (Escort, Chevette, Civicc Hatchback, Eclipse, Celica) or similar, and must be in good running condition, registered, insured, and street legal. Fair market value of the vehicle must not exceed $5000.

Car Audio Retailers Criteria:

All sponsoring car audio retailers will provide technical assistance, guidance, a set of parameters to follow to students, and a time frame in which they must create, design, and build an auto sound system without intervention. All products must be from IASCA manufacturer members and will be supplied by the retailer. Students will then attend the IASCA World Finals in October where the vehicles will be judged for sound quality and installation by IASCA IdBL judges who will test for SPL (sound pressure levels) of the interior the vehicles.

Limited Entries:

The High School Challenge is open to 15 vehicles only, and these will be accepted on a first come, first served, basis via official communication from the school principal and the particpating retailer with the IASCA office at 781-769-6600. Deadline for submission of teams is September 17, 2001.

The judgement:

Vehicles will be judged in three phases:

1. Sound Quality

2. Installation

3. SPL – Sound Pressure Level.

Sound Quality and Installation will be judged according to the 2001–2002 IASCA Street Competition Rules. Rulebooks are available from the IASCA office.

SPL will be unlimited and will be scored to the tenth of a decibel to determine placement in that category.

Teams will receive ordinal points for each phase (points based on their ranking for that particular phase.) The overall winner will be the team that has the highest number of ordinal points after the three phases are complete. Tie-breakers are: Sound Quality ordinal first, Sound Quality actual score second, SPL score third.

Awards

All participating high school teams will be acknowledged during an awards ceremony to be held on Sunday evening where they will be eligible to win trophies and prizes.

According to Tom Walker, president of IASCA, "The IASCA World Finals provides us a terrific venue to debut this program designed to attract the younger generation to the basics of autosound installation and competition. We developed the program to work in conjunction with a schools curriculum to give a clearer understanding of how they can relate to what they are learning in class and how they can apply it to their future."

Participating retailers in the Charlotte, North Carolina area who have committed to the project include: Audio Unlimited, Custom Car Hi Fi, Dedona, Elite Audio, Freemans, Rogers Car Stereo, Tweeter

Interested retailers are asked to contact the IASCA office for more information.

Link for more info: www.iasca.com