Volkswagen Jetta - Hotfusion

While it is next to impossible to see what fusion looks like, it's not difficult to see the effects Fusion Car Audio is having on the our market. The impetuous manufacturer from New Zealand is turning heads, the way green aliens might were they to be seen walking down a street. So when Fusion's new distributor, Pro-Rep Marketing, wanted a hot platform to show off the brand they decided on the VW Jetta Wolfsburg Edition as the vehicle of choice. For the electronics work, the car was taken to "Area 51", the secret projects shop at Mobile Dynamics Installation School in Toronto, where the instructors and students took on the challenge of molecularly bonding the system to the vehicle in true fusion style.

A demo vehicle is much different than a competition vehicle in both the design and the execution of the installation. Top-level IASCA competition vehicles are cosmetically and sonically flawless everywhere and require ongoing maintenance to keep it pristine. A top SPL vehicle is usually heavily serviced after a competition and rebuilt at least yearly. In contrast, a manufacturer's demo vehicle has to run for hours at a time in the parking lot of a local car audio retailer, or at a big car show. It may not see any service for months on end, and must be rugged enough to endure thousands of miles of travel as the sales rep's daily driver. If service is required, the repair time must be measured in minutes, not hours or days.

In addition, Fusion has a brand image to promote and that makes the final design a balance of many elements, which for any manufacturer's project, requires coming up with a plan before the first screw is turned. This system was designed to show off a variety of products offered by Fusion while still being the type of system that any car audio enthusiast would be able to afford. It also needed to be unique enough that people would remember the car and the brand. And it had to be completed in very little time. Once Fusion and Pro Rep were confident that the installer's ideas fit the marketing goal, authorization was given to "freelance" the project. This allowed the instructors performing the installation to pack in as many elements as they could while shifting the design on the fly to guarantee the completion date.

The only non-Fusion component in the system is the Nakamichi CD452 head unit, selected due to the unavailability of the new Fusion CD player. The Nak drives the input of the Fusion FX-40 preamp EQ mounted in the dash compartment above the radio opening. The FX-40 is a half-DIN sized unit, which would leave an unsightly gap either above or below the unit when mounted in the larger dash compartment. To adapt to the dash, the EQ was dismantled and the faceplate was scanned into the computer. Some quick mousing in Photoshop allowed the instructors to print out a new image that, once Goode filmed onto a thin piece of Plexiglas, yielded a new faceplate that filled the entire opening. It looks both factory original and custom at the same time. The Nak head unit can be activated or disabled via the latching outputs of an Autopage RF-505 security system, which also serves as the vehicle's antitheft system.

Front speakers consist of 6.5" woofers in well damped and reinforced doors, a pair of 4" midranges in custom built fiberglass kickpanels, and tweeters on the front doors near the A-pillar. It was agreed that the factory VW grills were pretty boring, which gave the instructors a perfect excuse to fabricate a foam/glass/MDF grill using two plastic rods as the only obstruction.