When Steve Brown set out to compete in his 1976 Toyota Celica back in 1994, he never realized that the install in the Celica was just a harbinger of things to come. It was on his Celica where he learned much of what he knows today. The Celica went through many grueling trial-and-error periods; and although the old and rusty vehicle from Colville, Washington took second place at the 1994 IASCA Finals in the Novice division, he felt that it could've been better.
During that same year, Brown was "discovered" by the local Alpine sales rep and he was hired in January of 1995 as a Product Application Specialist. Brown is more popular for the vehicle after the Celica, a 1988 Acura Legend. In this vehicle, the installation encompassed everything he learned from the Celica, including custom fiberglass, paint, and motorization. He even went as far as reconstructing the entire dashboard to equalize the path lengths of the speakers in the vehicle. The Acura turned heads at all the shows it attended. He competed with the Acura for five years and won the Expert Class at the IASCA Finals in 1995 and 1998. In that five-year span, he collected enough trophies to start his own trophy shop. With 250,000 miles on the Acura, Brown decided it was time to part ways with the vehicle. He sold it and immediately turned around and purchased a 1995 BMW M3.
Brown was so excited about the vehicle and could not wait to get started with it. In April of 2000, the planning for the vehicle began at the Alpine headquarters in Torrance, California. Together with good friend, co-worker, boss, and partner in crime Chris Yato, the two came up with a plan on the products to be used and how the installation procedure would go. It was decided that the Bimmer would use the best product Alpine has ever manufactured: Alpine F#1 Status. The goals for the system were simple: to produce an aesthetically mind-boggling installation with unprecedented sonic quality. In other words Brown and Yato had to create something totally out of the ordinary. The two were definitely up for the challenge.
New Dash
To understand the complexity of the installation, you must realize that the entire interior is far from stock. In fact, the only factory piece left is the headliner. The entire vehicle was completely gutted. This included taking off the front fenders, hood, and windshield. The duo spent a full month researching speaker position and what worked the best in the vehicle. It was decided that the mids would be installed as far back as possible behind the kick panels. This location provided path lengths that were more equal than just attaching another panel over the factory kick panel. Plus, the kick panel sits in its original place with no trace of any speaker behind it. Like most other kick panels, the ones here do not protrude into the footwell. Brown started by making cavities for the new mids. A 1/3 cubic foot enclosure made of 1/8" steel was welded into the open area behind the fender and kick panel to house a 6-inch mid from an Alpine SPX-F17T component set. They are protected using 16-gauge perforated metal covered in acoustically transparent carpet. With the fender in place, you would never know an enclosure existed behind it. For the high end, the tweeters were placed in the A-pillar behind a custom wrapped panel. This too required many days of testing before choosing the final placement.