Why settle for a proven show car winner when you can completely tear one apart and start from scratch? After all, that's what Broken Arrow, Oklahoma-based competitors Christerfer Pate and Gary Biggs, did last year with Pate's 2000 Honda Civic. During the yearlong project they turned a mild-mannered, sound quality focused Civic into an otherworldly version of what a mobile audio system could look like.
"The install was based on transforming the car into a room in which to experience music," Pate explains. "Gary came up with the idea to build the interior around the sound system versus building the sound system around the car. So we got rid of the steering wheel, made everything computerized and got rid of everything we could. Basically, we built a small room inside a car."
And that small room that Pate says is modeled after a music studio is what makes this Civic different.
InstallersChristerfer PateGary Biggs
Driver ProfilePate got into car audio when he was 12 years old and later worked his way through college at an installation shop. Now he's a member of Team Car Toys of Tulsa and competes in the Expert category with USACi, IASCA and MECA.
Thank You'sChristerfer would like to thank his wife Erica; co-creator Gary Biggs; Kent Bueller and Nick Wingate at ORCA Designs; Car Toys of Tulsa; Jan and Monte Bennet; Jeff and Grim at Carefree Paint and Body; Jeff Tealeo; Charles Stewart; and his bosses Nick Wingate, Jeff Tiel, Charles Stewart, Rob Rice and Don Tessier for giving him time off to run all over the country for competitions.
To complete the look that was created for the interior, Pate lowered the Civic and installed a custom race exhaust. A silver and black paint job and 18" wheels round things out. "We built up a motor in there even though I never drive it," he laughs.
While the 8" subs help out in front, it's the Focal 40KX 16" subwoofer that really handles the bass in the Civic. It's mounted in a custom rack that Pate refers to as the "bigmouth frog." "It's all curved so there are no standing waves," he explains, adding that it was made out of 1" steel tubing, 31/44" and 11/44" MDF, and "a ton of fiberglass," all hand sanded. "We painted it because it was such a crazy sculpted piece."