The ’90s and early 2000s were the heyday for car audio competitions. They’re still happening in 2025, shaking the earth with stereos that are louder than ever, but it was undeniably a moment in automotive culture that nostalgic speakerheads still pine for. The 1988 Ford Bronco you’re looking at here was one of the heroes of that era, built by the legend Alma Gates to surpass 170 decibels. It turned heads and rattled eardrums on the show circuit, but for years, it’s been sitting, stripped of the Kicker system that once earned it the title of “loudest in the world.”
Now, it’s being revived to live a second life as a hard-thumping demo vehicle.
Salvador Venerio is the Bronco’s new caretaker. He owns The Perfect Beat 505 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, so he has the know-how to make it a showstopper again.
Venerio tells me that he bought it off Nathan Munson of Audio Apex, someone who’s like “car audio royalty” when it comes to Sound Pressure Level (a.k.a. SPL) contests. Munson and Alma Gates were longtime friends before she passed away in 2013. If you don’t know about her, she was maybe the sport’s most recognizable face during its prime, making headlines and appearing in news segments for her unlikely hobby.
After years of asking Munson what his plans were with the Bronco, Venerio says he finally agreed to part ways with it. But only on one condition: He had to rebuild it with Kicker equipment. Venerio reached out to Kicker and inquired about sponsorship, and as of right now, the audio brand is weighing its decision. For what it’s worth, Kicker actually built a sixth-gen Bronco in honor of Gates and has shown it at SEMA.
“She used to have 48 [10-inch subwoofers] in it,” Venerio explained. “I was thinking of maybe doing like 38 [10s], but if they [Kicker] don’t [sponsor the build], then, you know, that will get expensive just buying that outright.
“I decided if they don’t, then I’ll do like four of the brand new SoloX 18s and do a whole lot of acrylic [enclosure work] and just make it really beautiful inside.”
Venerio notes that the build already has one sponsor, XS Power, which is providing all the lithium batteries.
I’m having a hard time finding just how many power sources the Bronco had originally, but there are tons of photos showing the absurd wall of alternators mounted to the V8 engine. Clippings from a 2001 issue of Auto Sound and Security show that the rig weighed 17,000 pounds altogether, thanks to all the gear. Gates recalled in that interview how the internal pressure was so strong from the bass that the body tore its sheet metal and even busted the back window.
Whether or not it ever returns to that level of bass-bumpin’ isn’t what’s important, if you ask me. Rather, it’s simply sweet to see it get the love it deserves. It won’t happen overnight, but it seems like Venerio is serious about bringing the Team Gates Kicker Bronco into the modern era. One way or another, you can bet it’ll sound fantastic.
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