Boom X Is the ‘07 Chevy Suburban That Keeps the Party Lit

Originally, Boom X was a 2007 Chevrolet Suburban that Dickenson bought stock from some guy in Alabama. Dickenson lives in Florida, where he runs a LED shop that allows you to customize everything, from a car to a motorcycle and a dune buggy and even apparel, by adding LEDs.

That said, Boom X is a little more than just a well-lit, colorful car. It’s also fitted with an impressive audio system, with speakers anywhere from the doors to the trunk, and lifted wheels. The paint job is custom too, a bright shade of alien green that goes perfectly with the black and same-hue green interior.

Performance-wise, Dickenson chose to make no modifications to the SUV. In an interview from last year, he explained that his focus was on building a car that would deliver perfect sound, a light show, and make for a startling appearance. The world was impressed, it would seem: he says he has won more awards than he can count and that both his bedroom and attic are stacked with those he won at various car shows and competitions.

Truth be told, Boom X is a something that needs to be experienced visually, words won’t do it justice. Dickenson says the inspiration for such a custom build came from his early admiration of flashy lowriders with booming sound systems. In his own way, he paid homage to that, while elevating that tradition to a whole new level.

Dickenson stopped counting the LEDs he put in his car a while back, but he reckons there must be a couple thousand of them. They’re everywhere, too: even in the custom steering wheel, in the seats, on the speakers and inside the headlights and the grille, which now displays a lit-up Chevrolet logo.

Because the LEDs respond differently to bass, mids, and treble, whenever Dickenson plays a track, they create a genuine light show. He controls everything with a one-off controller, which, he says, gives him the upper hand on competitors with bigger budgets. Boom X has a total of 45 speakers, of which 15 are subwoofers.

“The controller is really remarkable and has channels for the bass, mid and treble to where you can designate certain areas of your car to those frequencies,” Dickenson told Barcroft Cars last year. “Before, you had to get on the computer and program one song, one note at a time and it could literally take you 48 hours to program one song.”

In addition to that, the lime-green SUV sits high on 32-inch (81 cm) rims, which were a challenge to put in. Dickenson says he wanted the job to look factory standard, so he removed the fenders, modified them, lifted them and then welded them back on. He says this actually took him longer than he anticipated, because he was particular about getting it done right.

Dickenson didn’t modify anything about the engine, but he did put in four alternators to cope with the electrical demand of the sound and LED system. He says his SUV can still hit 100 mph (161 kph) on the highway, but because of the amount of work he’s put it, he would rather not go faster than 75 (120 kph).

And, while some people might hate how “loud” his car is, he’s happy he’s getting attention wherever he goes. His goal was always to create something that had never been done before, and he believes he achieved it.

“I did all this myself. There is no truck or car in the automobile world that’s done to this magnitude,” he says in the same interview, a video of which you can find at the bottom of the page. “It’s extremely loud, but more importantly it’s crystal clear like a symphony. The thing sounds as amazing as the artist intended when they recorded it.”

Dickenson estimates he spent about $50,000 so far on Boom X, but he’s not done yet. He wants to chrome the undercarriage and put speakers there, too. And, while he’s turned down offers of $70,000 to sell it, he might give it an honest thought if someone offers him $100,000.

Just in case the idea of being quite literally lit seems appealing to you.