Original subtitles

On this episode of MythBusters.

It's automotive madness with Team Extreme.

Adam and Jamie push the limits of auto audio.

Well, it better work. My shirt's all dirty.

When they test the myth that a car stereo can seriously damage your car.

That looks like it worked.

And Grant, Carrie, and Tori hit the rough road. Faster.

Yeah. To prove driving faster leads to a smoother ride.

Ready for your 45 -mile -an -hour run. Paramedics are nowhere to be found.

Who are the Mythbusters?

Adam Savage.

And Jamie Heinemann.

This is going to kill you.

Between them, more than 30 years of special effects experience.

That's what I'm talking about!

Joining them, Tori Bellacci.

Very excited about this.

Cary Byron. Look, he cracked into his skull.

And Grant Imahara.

Don't say anything.

They don't just tell the myths.

They put them to the test.

Inexplicably, Adam's wearing chain mail.

What is the myth?

Well, apparently there are some car stereo systems that are so powerful that

they're capable of destroying the car that houses them. We're not talking

like, destruction over time, right? Not bolts rattling loose over a period of

weeks. This is, turn on the stereo and the car just becomes a junker, right?

That's correct, or it explodes.

When it comes to the size of a man's subwoofer, big is not only better, it's

essential.

Some guys just have to play it loud to be proud.

But is it possible to make your mobile sound system so powerful that when you

crank the dial to 11, the car explodes?

So what's the plan?

Well, this time I think we need to get right into it and just go big.

Hellbent for leather, no shop test, no small scale, just build... The biggest

subwoofer we can?

That's right. The biggest thing we can possibly fit in that car and go for

maximum decibels. And hopefully max destruction.

So it's a simple plan. Build the most powerful subwoofer possible, and if that

doesn't destroy the car, then nothing will.

But how can mere sound destroy something as solid as a car?

Okay, so we know a speaker produces sound. It does this by switching an

electromagnet on and off and vibrating the speaker cone.

This moves air back and forth, creating waves of pressure.

This sound pressure level is measured in decibels, and in theory, with enough

decibels, enough pressure, you can break anything.

And Jamie and Adam have already proved just that.

On this classic episode, they confirmed the destructive potential of sound by

hitting the right note.

But on breaking glass, the key ingredient was finding the resonant

the crystal.

To shatter a car, this car, they won't be messing around with sound quality.

They want decibels, and lots of them.

All right, let's get her off the ground.

Yeah!

With the car in position, it's time to begin the super -sized subwoofer

installation.

Step one, make room by removing all mod cons and luxury extras, like the front

seat. You could make a robot out of one of those. I think I could make a robot

out of one of these.

The back seat and the steering wheel.

Now, this is cool. I want this.

A typical subwoofer has a cone size of around 10 inches. But in true MythBuster

fashion, the Mythwoofer will be anything but typical.

52 inches.

Oh, man. Which means we're talking probably a four -foot speaker cone.

When you look in this car, what you're going to see is the entire interior of

the car filled with speaker cone that's going to be moving up and down. It

should be quite entertaining.

So finally, a myth from our Australian contingent, although I would imagine

anybody who spent time driving on dirt roads would know this one. The myth is,

if you're driving on a rough dirt road, it's better to drive fast because it

smooths out the ride.

Okay, so how exactly do you get these mythical good vibrations?

Apparently, at slow speeds, the wheels of the vehicle have time to drop down

into the troughs of each bump, resulting in more bounce than a kangaroo on a

trampoline. But according to the myth, if you put your foot down, the wheels

skip across the tops of the corrugations, giving the passengers a

ride. Well, you know, that sounds pretty easy to test, doesn't it? What are you

going to do, just...

go out and get a bunch of cars and test them on a rough road? You know, I'm not

sure it's that simple, Jamie, because, I mean, you guys have to figure out a way

of measuring the vibration that's happening to the car under different

and different road conditions, right?

First things first, they're going to need a car.

This is a 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme.

Listen to that baby burr!

And to measure the rough road ahead, this old classic is going to need a

Mythbusters makeover.

To objectively record the vibration intensity at different speeds, they have

three systems in mind.

Tori has an idea for a suspension gauge.

Grant will crunch the numbers on a three -axis accelerometer, but Carrie steps

up with a more elegant solution.

I love that.

I'm making a system to measure how rough each of the road trials is. And to do

that, I'm using all of these wonderful crystal chardonnay glasses and making

them into a pyramid.

Now, as the road makes the car tumble...

The water should spill out from the top and kind of trickle down into the lower

glasses and maybe spill out altogether.

And at the end, we should have a really good representation of the roughness

between a 15 -mile -an -hour drive and, say, a 50 -mile -an -hour drive.

So after each test, using the 100 -mil mark, they'll simply calculate the total

amount of water lost.

The bumpier the ride, the wetter the designated driver is going to get.

This is what your pee looks like. You have a lot of vitamins.

After filling the pyramid with colored water to make it real purdy, Grant and

Carrie gear up for a quick test.

Down. Okay.

Maybe we should just see what happens when we go fast.

Not so much rough road driving as rough road walking.

Okay, and time.

But did the pyramid perform?

That's a perfect proof of concept.

It was great.

Meanwhile, Torrey is rigging system number two, the suspension deflection

He first welds a metal rod or needle to the suspension of the car. Then he

attaches a scale to the hood.

Impressive, but how does it work?

So the needle stays with the suspension, and our scale stays with the body of

the car. This way, we can see how much distance the two are, you know,

traveling. Their next task is to rig the car for Carrie's glass pyramid. To make

room and provide a flat surface, Grant removes the passenger seat and replaces

it with a wooden platform.

Now to get the pyramid in the car.

I think we should drain this before we try and fit it in there because there'll

be a lot of fussing around to get it in.

Maybe this is a good time to take a break.

In the myth that a car stereo can destroy a car, Adam and Jamie have,

destroyed a car.

They've made space for their mythical shattering subwoofer, the Mythwoofer.

they have to work out how to power it.

Normally, speakers are powered with an electromagnet. It repels and attracts a

permanent magnet.

And because it's electronic, it can do this very rapidly. It can vary the

amplitude and the frequency of the signal.

That's how you get music and all sorts of good sounds out of a speaker.

We don't need that. We're only interested in one thing, and that's

amplitude. So how are they going to supply enough juice to their supersized

subwoofer to blow up a car?

I figure just go directly to an engine. You know, we can get a crank. We can go

right to the output of an engine.

Raw power.

That's what we're going to do.

It's another myth -buster first. A diesel -powered speaker.

To harness the engine's raw power, they'll need access to the transmission.

So Adam and Jamie get cutting and open up the bodywork.

From the top and the bottom.

Where they find the drive shaft.

It's beautiful.

That's the best news I've had all day. Is the perfect size and shape for their

mechanically powered speaker plan.

With the first incision successful, Dr. Savage checks the patient is still alive

and fully functioning.

Now it's not shutting off. Which could be a problem.

Amazingly, there's a button on the engine that says stop.

And I pushed it, and it stopped.

The next step is to build a mechanical device called a crankshaft, the crucial

link in the Mithwoofer's power chain.

This is the crankshaft that is going to, via a push rod, push the speaker cone

up and down. So what we've done is very carefully align all this stuff, and now

I've got to weld it in place so that it works like a crankshaft inside an engine

block.

So this crankshaft will connect to the transmission, and when the engine is in

drive, it will turn and pump the speaker cone up and down via a pushrod.

Now, to get the crank assembly into the car.

This is kind of heavy.

This heavy steel bar is going to anchor our crankshaft in the car. This is the

simplest, rather crude, but simplest way of really making this thing solid.

I'm determined not to have this thing just rip itself apart.

I want to have this speaker rip the car apart.

That's the MythBuster way, an appetite for controlled destruction.

And with the crankshaft bolted firmly into place... Well, should we start it

I think so.

It's time to find out if it works.

I'm going to kick it into reverse.

Turning beautifully.

Nice.

That is nice.

With the build progressing nicely, Adam and Jamie call in Tori for a little fact

-finding mission.

This is beautiful. You're going to love this.

Dude, I need you to go to Florida for us on the subwoofer story.

I need you to go down there and check out this contest we found, the winner of

which is the one with the loudest car stereo.

Okay, what do you want me to do there?

Well, we need you to go there and see if any of these car stereo systems are

actually capable of destroying the cars that they're installed in. All right,

cool. Should be a nice trip.

So Tori's off to Daytona Beach, Florida for the Spring Break Nationals, the

world's most famous sound off.

Hey, look, I'm on TV.

It's a tough job.

This is nicer than my apartment.

And Torrey takes one for the team.

Put your hands together.

But the Spring Break Nationals isn't just an excuse for the guys to show off

size of their equipment.

They're here to compete. They come every year to sound off and find out exactly

who has the loudest car audio system.

Now, you're the president of a DB drag racing.

What is that? It's a format of car stereo competition where competitors

against one another to see who has the loudest car stereo.

Crazy but true. These guys customize their vehicles for one purpose, maximum

volume. Then they compete in a head -to -head sound -off where the winner

records the loudest decibel reading.

But has Wayne heard about the myth?

a car actually being destroyed by its stereo well i haven't seen one detonate

that's what you're saying but i have seen windshields break and i know of

of vehicles uh where the the panels have come undone and i've seen lights that

you know all of the driving lights on the top of the of the vehicle like the

trucks and stuff pop out during competition how many decibels would it

shatter a window Well, it's not an exact answer, but I would say that once you

get to 160 dB, you're in a range of sound pressure levels that could

the windshield.

So 160 decibels can potentially shatter a windshield.

And Jamie and Adam have their benchmark.

But let's get some more info on exactly what sound pressure can do.

So I think we can actually...

Name some figures to give viewers a perspective on the kinds of decibel

we're talking about. 140 decibels is plenty to severely damage your ears no

matter how short a time you're exposed to it.

And 165 decibels is what you get out of a jet airplane with 15 ,000 pounds of

thrust.

198 to 201 decibels is enough to kill you from the shockwave alone.

Yeah, and...

I believe 248 decibels is what the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima

Nagasaki put out.

Back with the build team, and they're tackling the myth that if you drive

on a rough road, you get a smoother ride.

We have three systems rigged to this car to tell us how bumpy the ride is. First

one. The Tori suspension rig, and that's connected directly to the suspension on

the wheel. As that deflects up and down, there's a needle that goes up and down

and a camera on that so you can see how far it deflects.

Perfect. The second system carries wine glass pyramid, and that's filled with

water. And depending on how bumpy the ride is, we'll see water slosh out of

glasses. And if we know that there's a lot of water out of the glasses, that

means that they had a really rough ride.

Excuse me, Garcon. More water, sir? Can I get a refill?

Yeah, more ice?

You'd like more ice? Yeah.

Final system is my three -axis accelerometer, similar to the one that

Buster's head, and that is going to measure electronically what the

are, and I'll be able to load it on my computer and see.

So it's official. This dirt road drive -by will result in more information than

a space flight.

And to check all systems are go, Grant and Tori are going to get the hump by

taking on the parking lot speed bumps.

Grant, with full -face helmet, five -point safety belt, and wet weather

focused on the safety issues, visibility, and data accuracy.

Tori, well, he just wants to go fast.

I hit it.

Faster. Faster.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah! Hit it!

Yeah!

Oh!

Yeah!

We have a great proof of concept.

When I hit the bumps, I could see the needle deflecting on the suspension

Water was flying around in here everywhere, and I've yet to check the

accelerometer, but I'm sure it's pretty good.

So everything's working, and it's time to hit a rough road for real.

With dirt tracks in short supply in San Francisco, they head out of town. All

right.

Here we are.

And just outside Sacramento, they find exactly what they're looking for.

A little piece of rough road heaven.

All right, we're here at the State Vehicle Recreation Center. This is where

people with motorcycles, ATVs, rough road riding, this is the perfect spot to

it. The section that we've found here is an access road, and it actually is

pretty representative of a dirt road that you might find, say, out in the

country or something like that.

With their test track marked out, Grant gets into position for the first of two

comparative runs.

This one will be at the slower speed of 15 miles an hour.

Meanwhile, Torrey takes time out to give his buddy some words of encouragement.

If the car does happen to go off the road and you go into the embankment,

stay put.

We'll call 911. You'll be all good.

Okay, dude. Good to go for run number one, 15 miles per hour.

Grant begins his slow cruise to the start position, and Torrey takes him

part two of the safety drill.

Once again, in case of an emergency, let's say you crash.

If the car does burst into flame, you should probably exit as soon as

At the start line, Grant tops up, and finally he's ready to measure.

In triplicate, exactly how rough this rough road is.

First at 15, and then later at 45 miles an hour. Okay, I'm good to go for run

number one, 15 miles per hour. Over.

Copy that.

Grant eases up to the test speed, and the camera on the hood shows the axle

gauge works perfectly.

It's recording maximum deflections of three inches.

All right, Grant, so that was 15 miles an hour. It didn't look too crazy.

No, and actually it was more like 20, like the car was idling very high.

I'm noticing something.

Your pants are wet. No, is that water?

Why don't you come over and find out?

While Tori finds out exactly how much water is lost from the glass pyramid,

Grant, after a quick change of pants, downloads and saves the accelerometer

data. Let's come back when they're done.

Back in Daytona Beach, Florida, and super sleuth Tari has got his ear to the

ground at the Spring Break Nationals. Jamie and Adam have sent him on a crash

course in auto audio for the myth shattering subwoofer. Can you destroy a

with a car stereo?

If anyone can, it's one of these guys.

So I hear you have the world's largest subwoofer for a car.

Yes, this is the 22 -inch jackhammer. It is the world's largest production

subwoofer for car audio.

Although you can see this monster moving to the groove, it's at such a low

frequency, it's not audible.

A speaker moving at speeds below 20 hertz, 20 cycles per second, produces

subsonic sound.

But even though you can't hear it, there is plenty of sound pressure measured in

decibels being generated.

What kind of dBs do these put out?

We put one in an Escalade, and we were running 6 ,000 true watts to it, and it

did a 167 .3.

Is that enough to destroy a car?

It blew out all the interior lights on it.

It rattled all sorts of things apart on the inside of it.

You guys got the world's largest subwoofer now.

Wait till we get done with it.

Torrey's next stop is IASCA champ Mike Bartell, the owner of one serious noise

-making machine.

This is actually what's called an extreme vehicle. This vehicle is good

nothing but sound, nothing but to be as loud as humanly possible.

Put it this way, it's loud enough to make your hair stand on end.

So what kind of modifications did you do to this? This thing is modified more

than you can imagine. It actually weighs over 11 ,000 pounds, has over 50 bags

of concrete in it, more fiberglass and steel than you can imagine, windows as

thick as 4 inches.

It's just like a...

bank vault. Now, are you doing that to keep the car from falling apart, or is

that just to keep the air pressure inside? It's a combination thing. The

stronger you can make it to where no pressure can be released, the better

going to be. So the louder it's going to be on the inside.

You actually won't even hear that much on the outside, but inside it's just out

of control.

Dude, I want to take a look.

Oh, my God.

That is ridiculous.

The scary part about it is the way this design is, there's actually a 15 decibel

difference from where you were at to the other side. So if I was on the other

side. The other side is literally something we will not let somebody do

we don't know what will actually happen to your vital organs at 177 decibels.

Oh, my liver.

I think it might have damaged my liver.

So Tori has learned 170 car stereo decibels is enough to tear stuff up.

This subwoofer is so powerful, it takes a bolt this long to keep this door shut.

But to find out if that sort of sound pressure will destroy an unmodified car,

it's back to San Francisco.

So how'd it go?

It was very cool. It was a very cool contest. And these cars are sick. The

amount of dBs they're getting up to is pretty incredible.

So did you see anything on the level of...

like car level destruction with those kind of decibel levels not like the myth

talks about i mean there was a lot of rattling but no panels were popping off

windshields were not cracking in fact they actually build the cars strong so

that they don't break because they want to compress all that air they want to

keep that air pressure so they can have higher dbs well had anybody there ever

seen a car get destroyed by speakers they had seen like crack windshields but

one has ever seen a car get destroyed by DBs. So car -level destruction by

decibels is a complete mystery.

Even in the world of sound -off competition, where the specialists use

to enhance their incredibly high -volume readings.

But of course, Jamie and Adam will go their own way. They'll be attempting to

blow the car up with DBs alone.

Raw, unadulterated volume.

The plan is to power their giant speaker with the diesel engine of the car.

The drive shaft will pump the speaker cone up and down, creating waves of

pressure intense enough to destroy this unfortunate vehicle.

This is the cone for the speaker.

Now, technically, we could just have a flat plate, but this will actually be

stronger. It'll be less likely to bend when we start pumping up and down on it.

And, you know, in a real speaker, you would have, like, something that was

perfectly conical.

But by making these pi sections, we're able to get pretty close with a lot less

work.

There it is.

Wow. That is perfect.

Next, an attractor inner tube will double up as the speaker surround.

This flexible diaphragm will allow the speaker cone to vibrate and retain a

on the speaker cavity.

And once it's glued to the aluminum cone, Adam and Jamie work on a new

MythBuster theme tune.

We are actually...

Really close to nearing completion on all the major components of the

All that remains for us is to put in the wooden parts that will house the

speaker cone, glue the rubber gasket to those, bolt it all together.

And I can't think of anything else, so that must mean that we're close to a

test. With most of the box cut and glued into place, it's time to attach the

pushrod to the crankshaft.

This is the crucial link that will transfer the power of the engine to the

speaker cone.

And speaking of the cone, here it comes.

But will it fit? Look at that.

Dude, that's plenty of clearance.

I was all worried.

To make sure the speaker cone stays attached to the pushrod, Jamie bolts it

place.

And there we go.

Now the thing is to paint on the contact cement.

This provides the main attachment between the speaker diaphragm and the

the car.

A coat of stinky, sticky stuff and some loving attention with a rubber mallet

and the monster myth woofer comes to life.

At the very least, it's starting to look like a bonafide speaker.

Well, it better work. My shirt's all dirty.

Holy Christ, it is. Look at that.

And Dr.

Jamie Frankenstein is as happy as can be. It's not half bad.

It's a little off, but I think it'll sort of seat as we kind of turn on the

diesel.

The diesel will make it fit.

The diesel engine will be putting the speaker cone and rubber surround under

tremendous pressure.

To help hold it in place, they make an inner tube sandwich with the plywood.

And with that done, Adam takes time out to reflect on a deep philosophical

issue. If a man's subwoofer is directly proportional to the size of his

ability to attract women,

This subwoofer says that we are way too preoccupied with size.

Back on the bumpy road, and Grant and Tori are collecting data in an attempt

solve the riddle of the rough road.

For answers, our drive -by duo are going to compare the vibrations at 20 and 45

miles an hour.

All right, so we just did one run with Grant going 20 miles an hour. There

wasn't a lot of movement between the axle and the vehicle.

The maximum deflection on the suspension gauge was 3 inches, and there were 3 .5

liters of water lost from Carrie's glass pyramid.

With the pyramid refilled, it's time this experiment moved into top gear.

Okay, Grant, ready for your 45 -mile -an -hour run.

Paramedics are nowhere to be found.

Might be the last time we see Grant.

With his elaborate safety measures, Grant has been driving Torrey crazy.

But this run is no driving Miss Daisy. Look at that water.

At 45 miles an hour on a tricky dirt trail, this is the real deal.

The axle gauge is showing a lot more activity, at times reaching the top of

scale, a maximum deflection of six inches.

Don't hit that rock.

Yeah!

But let's find out from the driver whether the faster speed led to a

ride. Dude, your eyes are, like, wide open.

Did it scare you a little bit?

Yeah.

Other than, like, kind of control problems, it was actually a lot smoother

I thought it would be.

I thought I'd be, like, you know, all over the place. What is all over the

is the water from the glass pyramid.

Four and a half liters were lost, one full liter more than the slower test.

One and a half. Which means Grant's subjective experience in the car of a

ride is at odds with the data.

But Torrey has a theory.

It might be similar to, like, say, a horse, you know, as opposed to a trot

gallop. You know, maybe the slower you're going, you're more conscious of

actual hits that you're doing, you know, the rocks, the bumps. You're conscious

of that.

which might sound like a load of old horse manure, but Tori is prepared to

saddle up to prove his point.

Okay, so I'm giving you these, and I'm going to expect you to act responsibly,

be home by 11, and have it gassed up.

All right, Mom.

Act responsibly?

Tori Bellacci?

It's possible.

After seeing Grant do that 40 -mile -an -hour run, it just makes me want to get

in there and go 70.

Torrey may be comfortable taking the cutlass up to 70 miles an hour, but

has seen the show before.

Torrey and potentially dangerous situations just don't mix. We've seen it

swing set.

I'm okay.

We saw it when he punched himself in the head with the meat hook.

Sometimes that guy, you've got to wonder.

I'm okay.

With the area clear and the team at a safe distance, Torrey hits the gas.

Responsible drivers, those wearing pacemakers, and Torrey's insurance

may find the following pictures disturbing.

Yeah, he's looking a little squirrely, like I would.

Incredibly, he makes it back in one piece. But what exactly was his speed?

All right.

I probably, around the... Okay, calm down. Calm down.

I guess around the first set of bumps, I probably hit around 70. And by the time

I passed the high -speed camera, I was close to 75.

Oh, man.

Well, yeah, let's see what the data says.

And for that, it's back to the shop, where Adam and Janie lend Grant their

massive brain in an attempt to decipher the data.

The numbers from the glass pyramid and suspension gauge quite clearly showed

that the faster you go, the bumpier the ride, leaving the myth on a road to

nowhere.

Finally, I have my accelerometer data.

But the accelerometer data on this comparative graph says just the

The dark line of the 20 -mile -an -hour test shows more G -force peaks,

representing a bumpier ride.

Yeah, the 70 miles an hour in the first, like, 70 % of the test seems to be

smoother than the 15 miles an hour, but again, like the 45, the spikes are

higher. Well, our data's in a little bit of conflict here. I mean...

Clearly, as you go faster, you lose more water and you have more deflection on

the suspension.

But our accelerometer says during that part where the road is fairly uniform,

you actually have a better, smoother ride.

when you're driving faster.

I'm noting that the big difference is on the big hits, like a big pothole. And

obviously, I don't think anybody would disagree with us. If you hit a large

at a high speed, it's going to make more of an impact on the car than taking it

easy through it.

So what we're saying here is that the myth is plausible.

But I really don't think that we can put this one to bed unless we test... The

washboard road, that that is the type of road surface that people think about

and have experience that driving faster makes for a smoother ride.

And I think you should try it and get the data to support that.

So it's back to the drawing board.

If the team want to nail this myth, maybe they have to build a replica of a

track the tail is based on, the washboard road.

These corrugated dirt tracks are common in the Australian outback, and Grant

takes time out to discover how they're formed.

So it turns out washboarding is created by the response of your car's suspension

to alternatively accelerating or braking or hitting a pothole. What that does is

it sets up an oscillation in the suspension that alternatively compacts

or makes it fly up, creating that pattern.

Adam and Jamie have souped up their ride with one thing in mind.

Here we have the original factory installation, and here we have the

more deluxe, little over -the -top installation.

They're testing the myth that you can do this with a car stereo.

And their diesel -powered speaker is just about ready to fire up.

Now we just have to decide what tune we're going to play.

DJ Jamie may be thinking about breaking out his hip -hop collection, but the

sounds this speaker will generate won't be music to anyone's ears.

We will not be piping a sound into this speaker, but it will be making a

sound. Let me explain.

We are merely creating a set of pressure waves, specifically just using the

car's engine to make this thing go up and down about 15 to 20 times per

That is sound because all sound is is a set of oscillating pressure waves.

It's probably going to be too low to actually hear anything because humans

hear really subsonic sounds like under 20, 25 hertz or 20 to 25 vibrations per

second.

But it will be incredibly high in the decibel range, and decibels is only a

measure of pressure.

And finally, because it's a little cramped up front, and no one wants to be

the car when the Myth Warfer gets going, Adam rigs a sophisticated remote

-controlled device for the throttle and gear lever, involving string and, you

know, some knots.

So that's it. Adam and Jamie's diesel -powered sub -warfer is all set to sound

off. And fresh from the DV drag race in Daytona, our Duke of Decibels, Wayne

Harris, is here to help measure the Mithwoofer's subsonic output.

Check it out.

It's like the world's largest wok.

Holy cow, how big is that?

Good question. How big is it?

It is 51 inches in diameter.

Judging by that stunned expression.

Wayne has never seen one as big as Adam's. Yeah, it's a very, I mean, go

stay home.

I don't know if there's much more speaker that could be fit in here. No, I

think so.

And after a guided tour of the speaker specs, Wayne is still wearing that

bemused look.

I was thinking, you know, you're going to hook it up to the engine. I didn't

realize you were going to use the transmitter.

You got some serious torque. I don't even know how to convert that into

equivalent power.

Do you think it actually has the potential to destroy this car?

Well, I'm pretty sure it's going to blow the windows out. At least one window.

But as soon as you have an opening, you've released the pressure. And at

point, then, you know, you're going to lose all of that energy.

So it's time to raise the curtain on this tall tale of the shattering

Adam takes off at safety zone.

And the Mythwoofer is ready to roll.

Let's go.

Wayne prepares his measuring equipment.

The setup is simple. A precision sound pressure level sensor will sit on the

windshield inside the car, and Wayne will get a decibel reading on his laptop

a safe distance. All right, high speed ready?

Ready. Well, it's almost time to fire this thing off and potentially blow up

this car.

But first, I'd like to do one quick test run just to make sure it's operational.

open all the doors so we don't build up any pressure, turn on the engine, make a

test of pulling the car into gear, and a test of pulling the throttle just a

little bit.

The myth woofer has yet to be tried. The aim of this preliminary test is simply

to check the massive speaker is working.

You know what will make this test a success is the rig itself not failing.

My big concern is that the subwoofer is not going to hold together.

there's going to be tremendous forces that play on the linkage between the

engine and the cone of the woofer. And if the cone starts to fluctuate, it

literally rip itself apart.

You ready, Wayne?

Ready! Okay.

Stop!

That looks like it worked.

Like a dream, Adam pulled the throttle, the drive shaft spun the crank, which

pumped the pushrod, and that, in turn, pumped the speaker cone through several

cycles.

Dude, I'm cautiously optimistic.

That's exactly what we wanted to see. We wanted to see it go without any big

kabang and things shooting off. So we know the rig worked.

Now it's time to close the door and do it under pressure.

So far, it's rough road myth one, Cary Grant and Tori Zip. To even the score,

the team have decamped to the wide open asphalt of Alameda. The dirt road data

they've gathered so far is a little confusing.

The pyramids and the suspension gauge seem to indicate a faster ride is a

bumpier ride.

Wow!

But Grant's accelerometer hinted at the opposite.

To solve the problem, our intrepid trio have decided to build a washboard road

of their own.

So, Carrie, what's the plan? The plan today is going to be a little back

-breaking. We have about 4 ,000 pounds of steel angle iron that we are going to

lay with about 8 -inch increments and weld them all down to make one long

It's going to be a long day.

It doesn't look that tough.

Especially if you edit the sequence like this.

Voila! One easy to assemble, straight out of the box, washboard road.

Grant's going to tell us more about it.

We've taken this angle iron and welded it to the steel here, creating a

washboard pattern. And our research indicates that four inches tall and

eight inches apart is about as bad as washboarding can get.

So this steel track is an exact replica of the corrugated roads in Australia,

where the myth comes from, which means when Torres finished his siesta, there's

just one thing left to do. The test is going to be, we're just going to drive

over our strip of washboard at different speeds, probably start around 10 miles

an hour and then slowly ramp up to 70 miles an hour.

For these runs, the team are just using the glass pyramid and the accelerometer.

Five miles an hour and he's still wearing his helmet.

And Grant is all set for the first run.

NASCAR it ain't.

Cruising at a breakneck five miles an hour, he hits the test track.

But surprisingly, Grant and the glass pyramid are really feeling the vibe. Oh,

look at the glasses spilling.

Interesting. That's pretty bumpy. I saw that. You could see all the water

jumping out of the glass.

The glass pyramid showed a lot of activity, but the high speed is

The wheel is bouncing, but how much, we won't know until we see a comparison.

Time for run number two.

Grant has to keep the speed at a steady 40 miles an hour.

Tori and Carrie are charged with the responsibility of timing the run.

Did you time it?

I did it. It went 1 ,000.

So you basically didn't time it. It was 1 ,000.

It was less than two seconds.

I didn't have a watch or anything.

Okay, so the timing thing didn't work out. But the high -speed camera is very

interesting. Compared to the slow run, the wheels are skimming across the tops

of the bumps.

By feeling it, it felt a lot smoother.

Really? I don't know what the data is going to say. Okay, let's count up our

water.

But there's some head scratching because the numbers just don't add up.

You ready for the countdown?

Yep. Although Grant experienced a smoother ride, there was more water lost

the slower run. Here.

Yeah, those two there. It looks like you've lost two. Which means the

data contradicts Grant's subjective experience in the car.

Tori and Grant respond to this blip in the proceedings in their own special

You'll never defeat me. I have come to take over the world.

And with that done, it's time for the final run. And Grant feels the

need, the need for speed.

This run is going to hit 70 miles an hour.

So if he starts steering in towards us, let's just run.

Grant and the cutlass fly over the track. The high -speed camera again

the tires skip across the peaks of the corrugations, exactly as the myth

suggests.

It felt actually pretty smooth.

Yeah, it looked really smooth.

I mean, subjectively, very smooth.

From the glasses, it's looking really good. It looks like there's a lot less

spillage this time. This time, the water loss from the pyramid backs up both

Grant's experience and the high -speed result.

Quarter. That's it. That's it.

So it's looking good for myth confirmed.

And Tori celebrates with a few skid marks.

Well, Jamie, we went ahead and built our artificial washboard. I think we can

conclusively say driving faster on a rough road will give you a smoother

Still, you know, you're driving 70 miles an hour and you hit a pothole. You're

going to break your suspension with that kind of math and velocity.

What's the verdict?

Well, as far as the myth goes.

It's confirmed.

Confirmed. Confirmed. Cool.

Adam and Jamie have successfully tested the world's first diesel -powered

speaker.

The question now is how to maximize the rig's potential for the real experiment.

Do we bring it up to a certain speed and just run it until it busts, or do we

try and like... Like that. I just...

I want to crank it and just send it to the moon.

Adam's solution has got Mythbusters stamped all over it. Let's do it. XS and

lots of it.

Adam fires up the engine, and Wayne gets into position at the recording station.

In order for this myth to be true, we need to see this car destroyed in some

fashion by the sound system, i .e. our big speaker.

Anything else in this thing is pretty much busted.

I don't believe there's any way that the subwoofer is going to detonate the

vehicle. I think there's a good possibility you could blow out the

break some of the windows.

But as far as actually detonating the vehicle, I don't see that happening.

Of course, Adam and Jamie are impartial scientists, so a result either way is

valid. But let's face it, music to their ears.

We've got three melodies. It's called first gear, second gear, and third gear.

Will be the sound of shattering car.

Ready, let's go for it. In three.

Now that didn't go to plan. The car is very unexploded.

I'm thinking the audio guy better get ready with the bleep machine.

There you go.

I don't see no cracked glass.

And why not? Because the speaker sure did look like it was working. And if it

was, it was pumping out some serious sound pressure.

It actually, to me, looked like a piece of medical hardware when it was pumped.

It looked like some kind of... I mean, it was so kind of barbarically primitive

in the way it was moving.

And yet, I was so gratefully pleased to see that it was moving exactly as we

intended it to move.

Check this out.

Blew the sunroof completely out of its tracks.

Oh, no!

Well, that's probably the reason the windows didn't go on.

Yeah, once you have any type of opening, you know, all the pressure inside is

released. The reason that we didn't get an explosion or shattered glass is

because when you put pressure in a car like this, that pressure is going to

the first outlet it can and release itself.

In this case, it popped the sunroof off of its tracks itself, not a small feat.

And at that point, nothing else was going to fail because the air had plenty

room to move around then by escaping from the car.

Okay, so the sound pressure escaped into the wild blue yonder via the sunroom,

leaving the windows and the rest of the car intact.

But how many decibels did the Mithwoofer pump out before it broke down?

It did a 161 .3 when it failed, but what's really impressive is it did it at

hertz. That is just almost unheard of to produce sound pressure levels that high

at such low frequencies.

It just takes a tremendous amount of energy to do that. If we were getting

dB at 16 hertz...

Does that mean that we're only going to get 160 dB at any hertz? No, because you

didn't hit the resonant frequency of the vehicle. There's a lot of resonances

and reflections and things like that that come into play.

I've never seen a car brutalized like this. I think we did a good job of this.

Wayne had never seen anything like this. I don't think there's ever been a

speaker installed in a car that is this big and this powerful.

Well, we managed to get the speaker working. The rig held together

enough for us to get up to 16 hertz. That's 16 pumps per second, which

is not an unimpressive feat.

And we achieved 161 decibels and change at that hertz, which is actually,

by all accounts, a pretty astonishing amount of sound pressure.

Remember, a jet engine with 15 ,000 pounds of thrust.

generates 165 decibels of sound pressure.

Wow. It's just an incredible amount of force.

With the Miff Whopper pumping out that kind of sound energy and the car still

not detonating... Now there's the failure.

This myth is looking as busted as, well, the Miff Whopper. Wow. That was a

violent thing.

It's a heck of a tune.

Did someone ask for a tune? The Bat Lady is warming up right now.

Well, guys, what are we going to call this? Busted, plausible, or confirmed?

Busted, without a doubt.

Look, we created some ludicrously high decibel levels, and the pressure did

exactly what it'll do on any car. It found one outlet, popped out through

and stopped acting on the rest of the car.

I'm not saying you can't smash glass with sound.

I mean, I think that's entirely possible, but you cannot destroy a car.

Face it, the speaker's so big you can't get in the car, so... It's ridiculously

oversized, and it's powered by the diesel.

If that doesn't do it, then any kind of regular conventional speaker isn't going

to do it, even a really, really big one. Yeah.

It's totally busted.

Totally busted.