This issue we wanted to reflect a little on what was going on around the world in car audio. Every year we see the different magazines at CES and wanted to see what is going on in their world. We noticed quite a few nice vehicles coming from outside the motherland of car audio. My first correspondence with any magazine outside the U.S. was with Max Power from the UK back in 1997. These guys opened me up to what was really going on outside the province, so to speak, as the UK was on its own style when the whole "Fast and Furious" market was just beginning to get recognition as the new scene here. The USA has always ruled on the world market with the IASCA legends of audio system builders, but the UK was adding a new "wild" spin to the whole street car concept. As I took this job at CA&E and rolled into the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in 2000 I met the editor of Car Audio magazine in England and we talked a bit, exchanging business cards. Soon we started sending magazines to each other. On my quest to chase rally racing in Great Britain last year Scott G. and I stopped in on Chris . We had a few cars set up to shoot once we got there but everything fell through as problems with the different cars came up. We were disappointed, but it didn't stop us from pursuing our dreams of witnessing first hand real deal rally racing!
We have some very nice cars from all over the world in the line up this month: Type R from Japan, PT Crusier from Australia, Renault from Bermuda, and one of my most favorites, the Mazda from Finland. I found this car as it was shipped over to the USA for the Consumer Electronics Show this past year to represent DSL Audio. See, I have a passion for small cars, most notably anything to do with the Mazda 323's and Ford Festiva's. I have a Festiva, better known as the Fester (as it was named back in my TMRm'zine days). For those of you who do not know TMR, it was an automotive magazine geared for the youth life style within what was previously called the import market (before the movie, "The Fast and Furious"). We bought the Festiva for $1,500 for the company do-it-all car. We dressed it up a bit with rims, tires, and lowered suspension complete with the Gran Turismo Demo graphics. It all started off when a friend tipped me off to the fact that the car's motor and suspension were being made by Mazda, while the body was by Kia. The two plastic badges were of course by Ford. We took pride in knowing our little car had some import heritage, but at the same, called it the Fester due to all the companies evolved. Also we found out that a Mazda 323 GTX All Wheel Drive TURBO motor would bolt in. We never got to do the motor swap project due to the lack of funds. I did get to drive Cams's little ferocious Festiva that he and his wife drove down from Canada on our Trek to Texas, featured in our CA&E July issue, page 52. He is offering all the parts you need for such a project on his Web site at www.cwstuning.com. For $2,500, added to my $1,500, I too could have a sub-14 second 1/4-mile car! Now add the awesome installation of Timo's Finland Mazda and my dream car is finished. I have not added up what the cost of the audio installation would be, but it's well worth whatever the expense. I should start this project since the Fester is sitting in the driveway with a blown motor after 250,000 very hard miles. What do you guys think, should we make it an official CA&E project? Email me: Yes / No. Vote now! I will add up the responses and go from there.