Hollywood has myriad clubs where people can move from the dingy light of the streets to prismatic pools of music, smiles, and sweat. To build a truck that captures the ambience of a club, you might have to stuff the cab with hundreds of people and fuel it with inebriants. But that's not quite what this black '03 Avalanche Z-71 is about. You don't inhabit this Avalanche so much as it cohabitates with you. It's like a club turned inside out. Once the DJ is done and the dancers are spent, the arsenal of speakers and turntables fold back into the Avalanche, and the truck drives silently into the night.
By now, you might be thinking you've seen this truck before. Chances are, you have. It was built by expert MTX installers Jason Planck and Craig Marsh in FST Motorsports' Phoenix facility in three weeks and cast in the movie XXX: State of the Union, released in April. It's an explosive debut for a vehicle designed to blast a crowd with audio/video bliss.
The aural assault starts at the DJ stand that rises from the Avalanche's roof and houses two TT-X1 Numark turntables, a Numark DXM03 24-bit digital mixer, a Numark wireless microphone, and two Pioneer DVJ-X1 DVD and CD audio/video DJ decks. A pair of Accele 15-inch monitors adds some video bling to the stand's audio slam. Two MTX Thunder7500 10-inch subwoofers were built into an enclosure in the stand, as were a pair of 6-1/2-inch component speakers. Two MTX amplifiers power these drivers: a Thunder7801 for the two 10-inch woofers and a Thunder3202 for the 6-1/2s. The speakers and subs fire rearward toward the Nitrous Express dual-tank setup and a brass dancer's pole.
That's right, there's enough room for a DJ and a dancer in this bed. Go-go dancers-like DJs-have become icons of the club scene. Lighting up the crowd with non-stop gyrations, they dance for 20 minutes at a time like machines of flesh and blood. These girls work, all right, but they're not all biz. Yeah, they get paid to dance to the same music that everyone else pays to hear, but there are times when a fresh track bounds to the forefront of the mix, and the go-girl breaks her rhythm for the span of a heartbeat as she jams her arm into the air in appreciation, sparks a smile, and unleashes moves that smear across the stretched exposure of the camera.
In the bed, beneath the dancer's deck, is a large enclosure housing three MTX Thunder7500 12-inch subwoofers, two MTX TP112 Pro Audio compression horns, and another pair of 6-1/2-inch component speakers. Dropping the tailgate reveals this setup, as well as these MTX amplifiers: Thunder-81001 for the 7500 12-inch woofers, Thunder3202 for the rear horns, and Thunder3202 for the 6-1/2s. Two Accele 15-inch monitors hidden in the bed-side storage compartments pop up from either side of the Avalanche, while three Accele 6-inch monitors beam through the cab's rear window.
Anyone trying to peer through the two rear passenger windows will get nothing but the sonic glare of two pairs of MTX's 6-1/2-inch component speakers, two TP112 Pro Audio compression horns, and four Thunder4500 8-inch dual subwoofers. Amplifying this attitude are a Thunder3202 amplifier for the horns and a Thunder4252 for the subwoofers.
Katzkin leather lines the interior and couches hot Recaro racing seats. Those shoe-gazers in need of a break can be serenaded by MTX 6-1/2-inch components in the front doors and 5-1/2-inch components in the rear doors, both powered by MTX Thunder7804 amplifiers.
StreetWires wired this all together: 14-gauge Ultra Cable for the speakers, ZN3 RCAs and ZNV video interconnects, 1/0 and 4-gauge power and ground, two CBR44A combo fuse blocks, and a pair of FH0ANL fuse holders. Four SVR80 batteries were installed to back up the system.
And if audio and video antics don't create enough atmosphere, then some special effects from the following might do the trick: Chauvet smoke machines, a Chauvet 5000-watt Mega Strobe, a Varad under-car LED kit, StreetGlow Pro series strobes in the headlights and taillights, and Varad Hyper Bar lighting around the DJ stand.
What's a classy clubber without a sick set of dubs? This Avalanche rolls on 26-inch Giovanna wheels embraced in Kumho 305/30R26 tires. A four-wheel disc replacement by Baer Brakes lets the Avalanche stay on top of the stop and go. The stock, black body is tatted with sponsor logos and nip/tucked with a custom-painted body kit, flaming door handles, grille inserts, and a Street Beat Customs 60x40-inch custom ragtop. Under the hood is the rest of the nitrous system and a cold-air intake, also from Nitrous Express.
MTX sends special thanks to Wade Kawasaki, Select Products, FST and Fly-N-Hi for their superior metal fabrication, Accele, Street Beat Customs, and Baer Brakes for their involvement in the buildup of the Avalanche. And while we're lurking behind the scenes, we would like to thank The Ivar (a great nightclub at 6356 Hollywood Blvd., in Hollywood, CA) for letting us hang out on a Friday night and snap some of the pics and photo backgrounds you see on these pages. Thanks to MTX, the nation can groove along to hip-hop sounds playing from a club as mobile as its citizens.