Car Audio and Electronics has always featured some of the best, most outstanding vehicles around. Looking through old issues it's truly amazing to see the giant advances as installers learned more about electronics, motorization, different materials and sound quality fundamentals. As you would expect, some of the most visually exciting and outlandish installations have been factory vehicles. The factories have much greater access to talent, product and, of course, money. When you see the vehicles they build to show off their products, you expect them to be incredible. It's the same principle as a factory backed race team - they'd better win.
For years now, CES has been the place for not only the introduction of all the upcoming cool products, but also where we see all the new factory vehicles. 2001 was no exception with some astounding cars and trucks in the manufacturers' booths. Rockford Fosgate has been doing a new car every two years and we knew this year they were going to have a new one. It was going to be hard to follow in the footsteps of the Dodge Ram they had previously created, but it's their job to raise the bar every time. The 2001 Nissan Frontier Quad Cab shown on these pages is a true worthy successor to the Dodge.
Rockford Technical Training Institute's (RTTI) Senior Vehicle Designer, Bryan Schmitt created the Frontier almost entirely on his own. The design theme was actually the result of an early morning ride on his Banshee ATV in the Arizona desert near where he lives. "I knew we had to get started on the truck. It was already at RTTI and Jason (Bryan's right hand man) was beginning to take out the interior. Things were even tighter this year because we had to have it ready for the SEMA show which is almost two months before CES. Topping the Dodge was going to be tough so I knew I'd better take a ride," says Bryan.
Getting the story form Jason Digos, who worked with Bryan day in and day out on all the fabrication and construction, is pretty much the same. "We got the trucks (two of them) in late September right from Nissan. They were the updated body style with the supercharger that wasn't even for sale yet. I started to take them apart and Bryan came in Saturday when we'd decided to start and said 'I had a vision in the desert and this is how we're going to do it!'" Jason explains.
Bryan immediately went to a rack full of materials and got some plastic rod to show Jason how the box would be rounded and how these loops on the front of it would continue the design of the large fender flares on the truck's wheel wells. Indeed, if you take a look at the outer loops of the sub box, then look at the oversized flares on the truck you'll see how the design of the truck is also the design of the stereo installation. Bryan used not only the styling and design of the truck through out the installation, but the theme or intended lifestyle of the truck as well. The bike rack in the truck bed and the huge Axis wheels fit with the outdoor lifestyle Nissan targets.
The installation was actually done in two phases. The first was done for the SEMA show in early November. In this phase, the sub box, the seats, the paint and all the work in the truck bed were done. The parts that weren't complete yet were the door panels, interior detail painting and the roof (video screen).