During the weekend of the 14th and 15th of October the third edition of the successful 100% Tuning show took place, in Ahoy'Rotterdam. Again EMMA the Netherlands was present here to organise EMMA sound quality competition, the West Europe Cup. Competitors from 5 different countries came to this last large international sound quality competition of this season. To judge all these cars an international jury team was present. Besides this another striking EMMA event took place, EMMA@WORK. 2 Brand-new Seat Leons were fitted with a complete Pioneer multimedia installation within 24 hours time by 2 teams.
Because there was less space available then last year, a number of cars
had to stay outside on the parking. Thankfully that took off nothing
off the great atmosphere amongst the competitors. With the many visitors
and the ladies of FUEL with their very hot shows the weekend in the EMMA
hall was one big party. Besides all the fun there was however a serious
competition going on. In the Rookie 2000 class Maryke van Bussel showed
what she can do. This lady is the very first lady in the history of EMMA
who became European champion. Because of this great achievement she could
take home, besides the trophy for the first place in the Rookie 2000
class, also the “Rookie of the Year” award.
The Peugeot 106 of Maurice van Neck and the Fiat Uno of Jeroen Boone however
remained close to Maryke and also scored some very good scores. Good enough
for the 2nd and 3rd place.
The Rookie 4000 class was full of surprises. Both Team Ice Factory and Team Goossens each put a new car in the competitors field, the red Audi 80 of Erwin Visser and the black Seat Leon of Bram box. 2 beautiful cars from which we will undoubtedly hear a lot in the future. A total surprise was Wesley Kompier with his Toyota Corolla. After many successfully ESPL contests, Wesley decided to participate in a sound quality contest as well. With great succes because he immediately won a very impressive second place! The first place was however for the Fiat Bravo of Franky Hoogendijk. This car is getting better and better every contest.
In the Rookie Unlimited class the people who earlier represented the Netherlands on the European finals in Bern, were once again successful. Rinus van de Berkmortel (red Audi A3), Hilko den Ouden (black Audi A3) and Fons Daelman (Nissan X-trail) took respectively the 3rd, 2nd and 1st place. Mark Soppe (who scored with his Vw Polo with Exact and Steg equipment a very beautiful 3rd place in Bern) did the same and went home with the first place in the amateur 4000 class. The first place in the amateur -600 class went to Germany, to the very impressive Mitsubishi L200 of Jan-Bernd Korte.
The Amateur sound only class became a battle for the first place between Germany and United Kingdom. The very beautiful VW Passat (with an Audi RS4 6 cylinder Biturbo engine!) of Andreas Ostner became second. Stephen Hanson with his silver Skoda Fabia took the trophy for first place home to the United Kingdom. The Amateur unlimited class also had such a heavely tuned car from Germany, the Vw Bora of Thorsten Otzen. He won the first place in this class above the Subaru Impreza van Gert-Jan van Doorn.
The pro -600 class was a massive battle between the Netherlands and United Kingdom. Marc Delnoij (better known as Didi) did his very best, but was nevertheless defeated by the Schnitzer BWM 3 of Mark Turner of team Turner from the United Kingdom. Mark Turner did a very good job. He also won the cup for "best sound of the show" and the large cup for the "best car of the show". It was very amusing to see how Mark tried to get this 2.30 meter high (!) trophy in his car to take it home. The Expert sound only class was again a (friendly) fight between the competitors Dennis Snijders (Snijders QCS and team Pioneer) and Rob Borremans. The BMW M3 of Snijders took the first place, the Chrysler of Rob the 2nd.
The Expert unlimited class had 2 strange competitors, the multimedia/ESPL/”Porn” van of Andreas Giebeler (the well-known Ford Transit fitted with handcuffs, a bed with tigerprint, mirrors and a complete mobile cinema) versus the European champion ESPL expert unlimited, Wim Corten from Belgium with his Audio System Hyundai coupe. During the European finals in Bern, Wim defeated Andreas with the ESPL contest. Now the battle was continued with a sound quality contest game. This time Andreas won. This was not the only trophy that Andreas could add to his already extensive collection. Also in the multimedia (DOLBY) pro class he was successful and took the first place. And he was also awarded the special HOT & STICKY award. This price was chosen and presented by the ladies from the FUEL company for the most sexy car on the competition.
In the Multimedia pro class there were 2 more interesting competitors, a Ferrari 360 Modena and the new very beautiful BOSS Audio demo car, a Vw Golf. Both installations were built by Brian Meghou of Brian's Custom audio ( www.brian.nl ). In the Multimedia amateur class Rinus van de Bergmortel (AKA Iron Man) was very successful. Besides the first place in this class he also won the trophy for "best Install of the show" for his very nice installation made out of RVS, in his red Audi A3. He was however closely followed by the very beautiful Polk Mazda MX3 of Sander Janson. Sander made a considerable progression with his car since the previous contests and will undoubtedly be a big opponent for Rinus the next season. A newcomer in the multimedia class was Bas Rikken. His Hyundai Getz is already very famous on ESPL competitions, but now he has also entered the multimedia competitions to see if he can win some trophy’s over here.
On the stage during the price giving ceremony the attention was asked for a new team. In a time in which it seems like that car audio must go louder and louder, a group of people stand up to go against trend. According to founder and team leader Martin Kruit a car audio system does not need to go brutally loud to be able to play music. The installations in the cars of the team are capable of generating noise above 100 dB, but they do not need to. A 100 dB maximum is more then enough to enjoy a good piece of music. Being called “mietjes” (translation: sissy’s) these people took this name and Team Mietje (Team Sissy) was born. EMMA has always been warning their competitors for the danger of hearing damage. For this reason EMMA the Netherlands supports the initiative of Team Mietje. The fact that the members of Team Mietje are certainly no softy’s on the sound quality contests becomes clear from the number of trophy’s that this team has collected in a very short time. Amongst the members of this team is the European champion Maryke van Bussel.
Besides all this there was of course also the EMMA@WORK competition. 2 teams of 5 guys, team Holland and the Fulda Gang from Germany, took on each other in a contest to build a complete Pioneer multimedia installation into a set of brandnew Seat Leon’s (provided by Seat the Netherlands) within 24 hours. This installation consists of 2 amplifiers, 2 composets, a subwoofer and Pioneer newest double-din DVD player/radio with touchscreen, navigation and iPod-connection.
To take on this very big job Metabo provided, following their motto "Work, don't play", a set of professional tools, one identical set for each team. Dietz and Signat supplied cables and connection materials. Polyservice provided all materials needed to process polyester, while Merford (www.akoestiekwinkel.nl) made all required damping materials available. LeCar (Ridderkerk) was available on Saturday to provide the teams with all last-minute materials needed and they took care of the Finishing Touch to both vehicles. The team from Lecar also provided various materials like MDF, a variety of tape and upholstery. Brian’s Custom Audio (Zoetermeer) and Snijders QCS (Amsterdam) supplied the remains of the installation materials.
Saturday at noon exactly both teams could start. It was fun to see how fast the interior of a car can be stripped out. Team Holland received the red Seat (stickered by Prografix) to install their setup. They created a very nice and beautiful installation in simple black. Also the doors were heavily rebuild to place the loudspeakers inside. The Fulda Gang got to work on the orange/black Seat, a replica of the WTCC car in which Tom Coronel became world champion. They crafted a completely flat floor in the trunk with all components sunken into this floor. And finished it with a matching orange lining. Striking about this installation was the placement of a 13 cm composet on the dash of the car. The Fulda Gang decided to create 2 housings for the speakers using wood and polyester and mount them against the A-pillars of the car. In both cases the basis of the installation was formed by a Pioneer double-din DVD player with touchscreen, tightly fitted into the middle console.
After both teams had been working continuously for 24 hours, at Sunday noon both teams had to put down their tools. Now it was time to look at and judge the results of the hard work of both the teams. The organization of EMMA@WORK were also present for the whole 24 hours to keep supervision of the work. They assessed the teamwork of Fulda Gang with 2 points. The teamwork of team Holland was assessed with no less than 6 points. After that it was time for the public vote. Randomly 10 people were chosen from the audience and they where asked to look and examine both cars and choose one of them. In spite of the flashing orange colour of the car and installation of the Fulda gang a huge majority of these people chose the red Seat of team Holland. With that, they were awarded 10 points on the Public Vote. With a considerable lead for team Holland it was then waiting for the judgment of the EMMA jury members. The cars were judged by 4 jury members (2 from Germany, 2 from the Netherlands) according the EMMA sound quality multimedia (DOLBY) rules. The judgment of the installation judges was slightly in the advantage of the orange Seat of the Fulda Gang. Then the picture and sound quality was judged considerably better in the advantage of Fulda Gang. Because of this the Fulda Gang gained the end victory with a 12 points lead.
EMMA the Netherlands would like to thank all volunteers who worked hard
to make this West Europe Cup possible. Also we would like to thank all
companies which made all this possible:
Pioneer, Seat, Metabo, Dietz, Signat, Polyservice, Merford, LeCar, Brian's
Custom audio, Snijders QCS, FUEL, Fandangoo and Ahoy.
Finally we’d like to put out a large thank you to all competitors and
visitors who made a big party out of this West Europe cup. Up to next season!
Take look on www.emmanet.nl for the whole report, all the scores, more pictures and all news concerning the new season.
On behalf of foundation EMMA the Netherlands, Frank Reijnen
