Dustin Culton's AC-Team Honda CRX

Autosound & Security Magazine March 1995

I call them my rock 'n roll years. There was a time when we looked for nothing more than driving into the sunset. Traveling the country in search of the nearest competition was almost as important as food and sleep; or perhaps more.
During the years when I worked for Stereo West, the leading retailer in the city, I was able to assemble a very strong competition team. But it was the combined effort of all salespeople, installers and customers that made the whole dream come true. And after everything was said and done, Stereo West became one of the top retailers in the nation, Joe Cavanaugh became a business leaders to the industry, my customers became world champions, and I had an opportunity to do an inventory of my life and change it forever.
But this is not a story of the ever-after. Instead today we will focus on part of the fun that made those years so cool.
Dustin Culton was one of our better known team members. Being a small guy, we surely picked on him quite a bit. Whether the reason was because he got a $400 speeding ticket outside of Memphis, or because he was afraid of a beggar at a fuel station in Indianapolis, Dustin was always a great sport. But in my mind he was to be always remembered as a great competitor. Dustin never gave up. The following is a short Winner's Circle coverage of his car  by Autosound and Security magazine published in March of 1995. Enjoy!

Dustin Culton and his award winning CRX

Autosound & Security
Winner's Circle
by Morgan O'Riley

People compete for different reasons. Some do it because they lived on competition, some because there's money in it, and others because they're addicted. While not as caustic as smoking, competing in autosound can be harmful. Just ask this month's Winner's Circle guy, Dustin Culton of Omaha, Nebraska.

Handmade kickpanels for a MB Quart 5" and 1" component set

To get ready for the IASCA Finals this year, he ended up losing a 3-year-plus relationship with his girlfriend. Tuning and tweaking takes time and evidently she just wasn't willing to give up any of her time with Dustin. So it became the car or her. Looks like Dustin chose the car, because they aren't together anymore.
One person's loss is another's gain. In this case Dustin got everything ready for the IASCA Finals and hit the road ready to win. His 1985 Honda CRX has the qualifications too.
A pair of Punch 40s, some components up front and a pair of twelves might not seem like a whole lot, but in the small interior space of a CRX, you really don't need a lot; and the way in which everything is tied together in Dustin's car makes it more than the sum of the parts.
The installation starts out in the stock dash location with an Alpine 7807 CD tuner. The Alpine fits nice and snug in its spot, and right below that the center console section has been filled with a vinyl-covered panel with four rocker switches on it. The switches control things in the system like the neon around the amplifiers and a motorized panel in the hatch area.

Dustin used up the majority of his hatch space with a pair of
MTX 12s, a pair of Punch 40s, fuses and more

After the tunes are produced by the Alpine, things head back to an AudioControl EQX. The AudioControl takes care of the system equalization and splits the frequencies between the two Rocker Fosgate Punch 40 amplifiers. The EQX is mounted out of sight on a hinged panel in the back. Set to operate with a linear actuator, the EQX motors up right in front of you when you lift the hatch lid. Underneath you get a neon MTX sign in a special paint job that looks like marble. Dustin likes to tell people he used marble for the job, but it's just paint applied with a feather in his sponge.
The crossover in the EQX sends the low frequencies to a Punch 40 that powers a pair of MTX Road Thunder Pros. The subs run 80Hz and down, and rock the little CRX.
The rest of the spectrum is covered by the second Punch 40. That unit powers a set of MB Quart components mounted in handmade kickpanels. A 5-inch mid and 1-inch tweeter where fitted low and angled to create a solid center image. For a touch of ambience, another pair of tweeters, Rockford 3/4-insurers, were set into the floor just forward of the seats - firing directly upward.

At the back of the hatch is a motorized panel that pops up
to reveal an AudioControl EQX and a cool MTX neon sign

Other cool little tricks that Dustin put into the system include mounting the amps upside down with the innards exposed, removable grills for all the components in the back, as well as tiny 2.5-inch LCD screens built into the sun visors. The screens can be used to play video games while you're stuck in traffic, or just to goof off.
Dustin is a member of USAC, IASCA and WAC. He attended over 20 shows in the '94 competition season, including the USAC and IASCA Finals. He's also proud to say that he did most of the work himself, but he'd also like to thank the guys at Stereo West for some of the work they did. While he didn't claim the title this year in the Novice 51-100 watt class, Dustin says he'll be ready to kick some butt next year in the Amateur class.




These are the whole page images:

Page 61 Autosound & Security March 1995

Page 62 Autosound & Security March 1995