The Truth About The Audi R8 Blackbird And It’s Mystery Box: The Infrasonic Wave Pulse Generator
The Audi R8 Blackbird has been hovering around the autoblogosphere for a few months now. It’s a damn impressive supercar built for a specific purpose: Cross Country Speed. Every single gadget and whizbang in and on this vehicle is there to help it stay on the road at high speed and avoid getting pulled over (and all the bits and pieces are put together beautifully, it’s a real work of art). Plus, on top of it’s inventory of extreme gadgetry, the guy giving the video tour is the winner of the Spirit of Gumball trophy and holder of the transcontinental driving speed record, Alex Roy – so you know the company it’s owner keeps. Roy made it across the United States in 31 hours, 4 minutes in his highly modified BMW M5. But according to the video, the owner of the car isn’t Roy, but some mystery man. In fact, there’s a air of mystery about the whole video.
Let’s clear up some of that mystery. There is a strong subculture of transcontinental speed freaks who participate in various rallies and races like the Bullrun, Gumball, and Fireball Run. The people who participate in these races usually form teams so they can scout out the road ahead and coordinate to really do it right. Alex Roy, for instance, runs with his team: Team Polizei. The R8 Blackbird, on the other hand, runs with Team Angry, and it’s already participated in the Bullrun 2008. As for the mystery man who owns the car, according to various sources, that’s Andre Betz. The part I’m still curious about, though, is the creepy box on the front of the R8 Blackbird: The Liquid Cooled Infrasonic Wave Pulse Generator. Nobody knows much about it, but I do have some theories. Check them out, along with a few pictures and a complete list of the car’s inventory:
The Audi R8 Blackbird is an amazing car, built for a singular purpose and with a fanatical single-mindedness. The car is made and modified to go very fast and to avoid police. From what I understand it was purpose built for the 2008 Bullrun. And judging from it’s hardcore nature, I’d say that it might be the one that sets the next transcontinental speed record… if it hasn’t already. Yeah, it’s entirely possible that Andre Betz may have already broken the record with this car and is just waiting a year until the statute of limitations is up on the traffic violations. Could be, it’s possible.
Take a look at what this car has:
Inventory
Uniden BCD-396T Trunk Tracker Scanner
Uniden BCD-996T GPS Scanner
Cobra 75 WX-ST CB Radio
GRadio 5watt VHF Radios with Iasus NT-3 Evolution Throat Mics
WAAV AirBox X2 EVDO Rev A Dual Cellular Broadband Router with WIFI
Escort 9500ci Radar Detector with AI Design Custom Mirror Mounted Display
Valentine V1 with POP Detection
Escort Laser Shifters Front and Rear
(2) Garmin Nuvi 760 Units with FM traffic
(2) Hirshmann GPS 918 5V Flex Cellular GPS antennas
Antennex 4 Foot CB antenna
Antennex 2 Foot Tuned Scanner antenna
(2) Safecraft PC2 2.5 lb Dry Fire Extinguishers with Billet Quick Release Mounts
Whelen HHS2100 PA System with 100watt Amplifier and Loudspeaker
Gloss Black Powder-coated SDS 20-inch Forged Wheels
Flat Black Ceramic Coated Brake Hats and Rotors
Flat Black Ceramic Coated Exhaust Tips
Capristo Sports Exhaust with Computer Controlled Valves
Custom AI Design Roof Console
(2) Dension ICE iPhone stations
Touchscreen Tablet PC Running Google Earth/Delorme Road Atlas/Google Maps/Njection/Trapster
And of course, the Proprietary Liquid Cooled INFRA-SONIC Field Wave Generator
So What Exactly Does An Infrasonic Field Wave Pulse Generator Do?
Infrasound is simply sound with a frequency too low to be heard by humans. The lowest frequency a human can hear is 20 hertz, so anything below that is infrasound. That means the box on the front of the Blackbird is basically just a subwoofer, capable of generating ultra-low, ultra-powerful sound. Still, there are a ton of hypothesis and random guesses as to what that infrasound actually does for the car, so I’ll run down each of the major ones and then give my opinion. But first, here’s some extra info about “the device” gleaned from various forums:
-It’s fed by a 7000 watt peak modified sinewave inverter. I don’t really know what that means, other than it’s a huge amount of wattage.
-Some info on the liquid-cooled part: the coolant lines are pressure tested up to 60 PSI at 300 degrees F. The maximum operating temperature on “the device” is 190 degrees. That seems pretty hot for some clear tubes; so that tells me they’re high-tech. But maybe I’m wrong; that’s what the comments are for.
-According to the owner of the car, “the device” is never operated while the vehicle is stationary or when people are in front of it. He also said the unit isn’t available to the public, but it isn’t military technology and therefore doesn’t fall under any military classification…“yet”. Notice the all important “yet”.
Possible uses:
Possibility #1 – Super-Powered Deer Whistle
Some people think the Blackbird can turn on the device when it hits a dark, wooded area and the powerful infrasound wave will keep deer and other critters from running in front of the car. That way they can travel on woodland roads at high speeds without worry. For this to be true, the 7000 watt device would need to be on constantly for long periods of time. But judging from the high level of power it consumes, I think this thing probably operates in bursts. So I say unlikely to this one.
Possibility #2 – Some Type of NightVision
Some forum folks say that the infrasound acts like sonar and can give the driver an image of the road ahead when all the lights are off. But there are already a fair number of very efficient and powerful types of night vision on the market, and none of them use 7000 watts or require liquid-cooling. Again, I think this one is unlikely.
Possibility #3 – Laser/Radar Jammer
It could be the mystery box is a high tech super jammer that works by cloaking the car in a field of infrasound. However, jammers already exist, they’re fairly small, and don’t need to be cooled. In fact, the Blackbird openly admits it has various types of jammers in the front and rear of the car already, check the inventory. Another unlikely possibility, in my opinion.
Possibility #4 – Creepy Military Grade Acoustic Weapon
Interestingly, infrasound has been known to cause feelings fear and anxiety in humans, along with physical symptoms like nausea. When someone slow is in front of the Blackbird, and they want them to pull over, could it be that they just blast the Infrasonic generator, get on the PA system and tell the guy to get out of the way? Like I said before, judging from the setup of the device, it seems like its built to be activated in short bursts instead of turned on and left on. Out of the 4 hypothesis listed here (and there are undoubtedly many more), this one seems the most plausible to me.
That’s all I’ve got. Any other theories are welcome. Let’s hear what you think, Ridelusters.
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- Audi launch their own TV channel
A theory is not “The Truth”. I love your site…please don’t diminish your credibility by making such claims.
I don’t see why #1 couldn’t be a possibility, considering all the time and effort put into a record cross-country attempt, only to be thwarted by a small dog or similar animal, nevermind mind something larger. Imagine hitting a deer at 100+mph in that thing…you’re done. The same reason it would make slow drivers want to get out of your way would also make animals want to move…discomfort. Plus it would explain the cooling…on for long periods.
#2 is brushed off as not making any sense? Why not? Kill the lights, black car, cop never sees you to switch on the instant-on radar. Not like someone is going to hit you from behind at 100+mph. All you have to do is worry about what’s up ahead.
Interesting machine either way. As a regular law-breaking hooligan myself, I look forward to hearing more about it.
Words by killboy.com on January 19, 2009 at 9:56 pm | #
@killboy
I put “the truth” in the title because we found the actual owner is Andre Betz and runs for Team Angry. As far as I know, there is no other article or post about the Blackbird that has that info. I may be wrong, but I haven’t seen one, so I figured the title was appropriate. And as for the theories; I didn’t really elaborate on them, but I don’t think it’s likely that the device would be run for any long period of time, I think it can only operate in bursts, considering the huge amount of power it consumes (7000 watt peak), so it’d be useless as a deer whistle type of device. It’s just too complex for that use. Same goes for #2… there are already tons of types of night vision on the market that work really well, either a device that picks up heat signatures or just a night vision cam that works using low levels of light, neither would need to be liquid cooled, and both work perfectly. That’s why I’m leaning toward the infrasonic weapon theory, it just makes the most sense given all the info.
Words by Vito on January 20, 2009 at 2:58 pm | #
I highly doubt the Proprietary Liquid Cooled INFRA-SONIC Field Wave Generator
would be used for making people feel ill while driving. sense the blackbird has sirens and strobe lights to warn drivers to pull over to begin with going one step further by making them sick is highly unlikely. But the idea of some sort of low frequency sub woofer to warn off animals (such as deer) is a much more understanding. One of the things that goes through my mind whenever I see someone speed in a wooded area is if a deer were to run in front of them not only will it cause damage to the car but most likely injure the driver and the passenger.
Words by marshd142 on January 31, 2009 at 1:30 pm | #
Well, seeing as how it is a low frequency generator, it would be impractical to use as an animal defense as most animals respond to ultrasonic tones. What i think its purpose is, is much more specific. Having strobes and sirens are not very “stealth”, and most people do not notice them in time as it is. The wave that this could generate would be HUGE – and have a greater effective range. Plus it is focused. If you have ever heard one of those “stereos with wheels” you know how it will shake your car and fill your ears with a drone, its the same idea, but a much lower pitch and frequency, and focused – where the common subwoofer is not. For a comparison, a subwoofer is to a fire hose like the wave generator is to a waterjet machine. This would be something “felt” and not heard. This “tech”, as it were, has been tested before with crowd control and such and has been known to cause all sorts of emotional feelings and also physical, such as suddenly feeling ill or (for lack of a better term) the need to use the rest room. This would also alter your vision as your eyes would vibrate, causing blurred vision. Now, if someone was driving along and suddenly felt sick, and their vision became blurred, it would be a natural reaction to get off the roadway, or at least pull over – opening up a path of least resistance. So, i think THAT is what it is intended to do and the reason for not using it while parked or have anybody directly in front of it. And to touch on the so called “night vision”, if it were such a device, the frequency is too low and would go through whatever it is you want to “see”. A high frequency generator would be used for that, but then again, there are better ways of seeing at night, and a FLIR would be the best item for this type of car or you could be crude and go with some NVG’s, but that’s the poor man’s solution, and this guy is far from poor. I am sure deer strikes would be bad, but what about dogs, cats, coons, skunks, and whatever other furry critter might be on the road? They would all do damage, and they all respond to different frequencies. Plus, it would have to always be on, and not require the power this thing has. Is it some type of weapon? Absolutely. Its called non-lethal force (not the name, as i don’t know what its called ) but it has been in development for some time, and will be used for crowd control, just like non-lethal bullets and non-lethal grenades.
Words by oneShot on February 14, 2009 at 9:19 pm | #
A modified sinewave inverter is an inverter that superimposes 2 square waves to approximate a sine wave. Typically found in cheap computer UPSes.
An infrasonic transducer that outputs 7KW would have to be atleast a meter in diameter (rough estimate). The reason for this is that the size of the speaker is inversely proportional to the square of the frequency.
This is why on your home stereo, the woofer is so much bigger than the tweeter.
Basic physics which any college graduate could have told you.
The only conclusion to be drawn is that this device is a load of bullshit.
Words by getaneducation on March 22, 2009 at 3:13 am | #
I’d say it has to do with protecting the vehicle from police radar. It wouldn’t require long term power applied, just a burst each time the detector is triggered by radar in the area. It would fend off the radar lock similar to how the laser defusers fend off a laser attack.
Words by Chrome on June 1, 2009 at 8:31 pm | #
definitely agree with chrome, if the cop was shooting radar this would definitely affect the units ability to recover the signal
therefore he could keep his speed and not worry about it, poor speed trap cameras…
Words by ballz on June 26, 2009 at 1:51 am | #
In the UK police cars are testing a “powerful subwoofer” system for use on the motorways. Some drivers don’t see them coming up fast behind them even with blue lights and regular sirens, the “sub” system physically makes cars in front vibrate so waking up the driver to hopefully pull out the way. At least that was on the local new station last week.
Words by Steve on July 6, 2009 at 1:47 am | #
The Truth is that its an IR Light Transmitter with IR night vision camera above. At the top you’ll notice the IR Camera in silver and then the beast is a massive IR Transmitter. Most IR Night Vision cameras have 50 or so IR LED lights that allow them to see up to 50 meters. However, when traveling at speeds in excess of 150+ mph,… 50 meters comes and go’s way to fast to be effective. With the IR Light Transmitter, the light is emitted at much greater distances, allowing for visibility at a much greater distance.
Look it up – you’ll see that exact IR Transmitter (and similar) being used in other applications ,… and the camera can be found on eBay and different online stores.
Words by djbmw on August 17, 2009 at 10:38 am | #
i believe djbmw’s explanation is by far the most plausible. Even in the name its referred to as a “field” generator. Creating this field to a very extensive degree will allow the driver to drive in any condition with no lights exposed, and see as if it were day time. Traveling at this excess of speed I think u will have trouble trying to find an equivalent night vision set up that will accomidate at any regular store.
Words by a418tq on September 3, 2009 at 1:41 am | #
Back again .. after speaking with My insider friend at MIT he and his cohorts couldn’t resist tearing every detail of this up … And all came to one realistic conclusion .. most of which was matched up with the video and the The TECH stuff in the car
THIS IS BASED ON 7 peoples opinions the attend MIT currently they are uber geeks I can assure you
Conclusion –> A vehicle mounted LRAD type device
Supporting Facts- …
If you look through the AIR Force/ NSA PDF I listed before you will notice the mention of it taking incredible power to use a device like that. * In the DESC. they mention the 7000 some odd watts of power it consumes. Which is why you need the Cooling obviously.
He mentions a PA system with sirens and such and laughs as he is saying that. most vehicle P.A. systems are delivered through a Horn Woofer and would be obvious where it was coming from… “unless it was stealth mounted and could be done at long range to avoid obvious guilt.
They mention that laws will be formed against this …
Cant be Deer/ Animal decoys why make that illegal ? not that it wouldn’t work for that though as a bi product. but def not its main purpose.
You wouldn’t make a linear .. best of the best night vision for cars illegal … that could and would save lives. Rule that out. plus why go through the trouble when GM has several versions for sale that are not cheap but work great. … Plus night vision inst illegal in any other form. even the MIL Spec versions are available to the General Public
The MIT Crew also stated being that the TEAM Name is FEAR ?? is some what of a tell tail to the end of this long story.
They said that the only reason to make something like that illegal is you could cause serious injury’s or deaths if using it on a populated road / area … Not to mention the Extremes listed in the details
**biophysical effects; nausea, loss of bowels, disorientation, vomiting, potential internal organ damage or death may occur <— NOT GOOD FOR THE PEOPLE lols.
Just a top notch battery of opinions.
Cant wait until they just come out and say it.
Words by TaoDepree on September 21, 2009 at 4:00 pm | #
The infrasound generator is designed to be used in short bursts but you guys have it all wrong, its used to disrupt the flow of air around the outside of the car, turn it on when headed into a strong wind and the generators sound waves disrupt the coherent air and reduce drag,
Words by Rhinomeat on September 25, 2009 at 2:26 am | #
I understand the gain from that but once again why make that illegal ?? nothing wrong with a little less drag. Not to mention that the car is extremely aerodynamic already.
If you read / look up that pdf I listed previously it gives a very clear description of what the government made the thing for. ” Google Ifrasound and airforce… it isn’t far from the top, the report is from the late 70’s / 80’s look at the side effects.. nothing listed about drag reduction not that moving all that air would do that a little.
But hell who knows could still be BS … FEAR tactic.. no pun
Words by TaoDepree on October 4, 2009 at 11:41 pm | #
I believe the Infrasonic Field Wave Pulse Generator is Non-Lethal subsonic Weapon. You have a very expensive car like this, you would want to keep the a-holes away from it while parked, especially people who drive those blooted SUVs.
Words by Jah on October 25, 2009 at 5:09 pm | #
I think it is an experimental radar device. Infrasonic waves travel alot further then regular radar waves. ALOT further…so I think that he should be able to possibly detect and jam alot further out then most…and in turn making him a stealth bomber of a car….awesome thouhg
Words by Logan on October 26, 2009 at 4:55 pm | #
It’s probably non-functional. Most likely used to stir up debate and theories on article websites.
Plausible? Probably.
Words by Reactive on October 27, 2009 at 3:22 am | #
The silver thing is a GoPro camera. You can buy them for $150. If you watch the video there’s another one behind the passenger’s head.
Words by Steve on November 8, 2009 at 10:28 pm | #
Look up something called the Rumbler. Police, Fire and EMS use them to generate ultra-low sound and essentially scare the living garbage out of whatever is in front of them. Although they aren’t nearly as big, nor do they have the need to be liquid cooled. This generator could be the Rumbler on a MUCH bigger scale.
Words by McLen on November 10, 2009 at 3:41 pm | #
It could be an EMP gun. However I would think it would be mounted to the back of the car.
Words by Stefan on November 12, 2009 at 3:41 pm | #
Vito, the writer of the original article here…
djbmw’s explanation is pretty convincing. I’ve been looking around lately and I’m losing faith in my original theory that its an acoustic weapon. It also very well may be that this “device” has been played up by the car owner as a super secret item, when it reality it’s just something else, or nothing at all.
New Theories:
- djbmw’s idea… “its an IR Light Transmitter with IR night vision camera above. At the top you’ll notice the IR Camera in silver and then the beast is a massive IR Transmitter. Most IR Night Vision cameras have 50 or so IR LED lights that allow them to see up to 50 meters. However, when traveling at speeds in excess of 150+ mph,… 50 meters comes and go’s way to fast to be effective. With the IR Light Transmitter, the light is emitted at much greater distances, allowing for visibility at a much greater distance.”
or
-a liquid cooled IR imager. it could be useful because an IR imager’s operation is independent of visible light which means, when they hit their light/kill switches they can hit the strobes and keep going. everyone chasing them with light enhancing night vision (most readily available setups) will be unable to follow due to the strobe effect. meanwhile they (R8) can keep going. but why is it facing forward?
or
-used to trigger the signal priority switches installed in many cities, which respond to IR light in a particular frequency range (originally designed to let firetrucks get a green light faster)
or
- a device designed to defeat automatic traffic control cameras, which are triggered by the pressure pulse of vehicles passing over them. This thing could generate a welter of confusing pressure pulses which would cause premature firing of cameras or none at all because of noise filtering.
Words by Vito Rispo on January 28, 2010 at 12:30 pm | #
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward_looking_infrared
“There are two basic ranges of infrared; long-wave infrared and medium-wave infrared. The long-wave infrared (LWIR) cameras, sometimes called “far infrared”, operate at 8 to 12 micrometre and can see heat such as hot engine parts or human body heat a few miles away, but longer distance viewing is made more difficult because the infra-red light is absorbed, scattered and refracted by the air and water vapor. Some long-wave FLIRs require their detector to be cryogenically cooled, although moderately sensitive FLIRs are produced that do not require cryogenic cooling.”
I’m convinced this may just be the answer. Major props to djbmw.
Words by Vito Rispo on January 28, 2010 at 12:37 pm | #
I think it plays cassette tapes. Also, I’m right. That’s totally a cassette player. I can tell.
Words by Clay on January 28, 2010 at 12:50 pm | #
I agree with Vito & djbmw. At 100+ mph you need all the visibility you can get, and there’s no need to slow down if the weather goes to hell.
Words by xul on February 19, 2010 at 5:18 am | #
McLen’s idea about the Rumbler looked plausible, but 7000 watts? The police versions only use 100, 200 watts. Talk about overkill.
Words by xul on February 19, 2010 at 5:27 am | #
looks to me is just a power inverter to power-up all the in vehicle electronic gizmo. As getaneducation stated correctly, the size is too small to be a 7K watt infrasonic transmitter.
Words by wwav10 on February 28, 2010 at 1:28 pm | #