What happens when a respected audio installation shop gets their hands on a vehicle previously owned by a car audio master? If you're lucky, you get something like this Bug, an audio masterpiece that you'll see whenever you drive by Speaker Works in Orange, CA. Speaker Works first got involved with this particular VW over a decade ago, when the previous owner, Rich Coe (formerly of AudioMobile and Alpine), brought it in for its black/mica over 1947 Willy's Green paint job. Coe was rushing to finish the build, with its custom dash, speaker enclosures, running boards and fenders, for CES.
A couple Consumer Electronic Shows and advertising spots later, Coe retired the Beetle from the circuit. Even if he had lost interest in it as a show car, you'd think he'd jump at the opportunity to tour around in a great-sounding daily driver. But with all its modifications, the only way it could get you somewhere is if you climbed in while it was being hauled to the next show. Therefore, the ignored trailer queen sat in a garage for about nine years until Eric Holdaway, son of Roger Holdaway, who started Speaker Works in 1978, convinced Coe to sell it to him.
New Goals
Back at Speaker Works, Eric Holdaway's brother, Patrick, and installers Paul Rivero and Jason Olson handled the rebuild, breathing new life into the classic Bug. They wanted to retain the majority of Coe's customizing yet also create a car you could actually drive. "Our focus," states Holdaway, " was to create a vehicle that was still a usable car ... that featured the ultimate in multichannel, 5.1 sound reproductions." Makes sense to us: People want to enjoy superb sound during their daily commutes, not just in their garages or at a car show.
Before touching the audio system, the Speaker Works team disassembled and reassembled the Bug to proper torque specifications and alignments; finished the wiring harness, lighting, brakes and seat mounts; and lastly tinkered with the engine, fuel system and carburetors. Now capable of taking a spin around the block, the Beetle was ready for a big helping of new A/V gear and accessories.
Layered beneath it all, damping material keeps down unwanted sound and vibrations. If you ever get the chance to hear this Bug blasting the decibels at an event or the shop, you'll understand how necessary this step is. Speaker Works chose Cascade Audio Engineering VB-2HD for the roof, quarter panels and doors with VB-3.5 for the floor and wheel wheels. The power system consists of a USD Audio 140-amp HD alternator, two Optima BlueTop batteries under the rear seat area and 1/0-gauge and 4-gauge power cables. The lesson here: If you plan on building a hefty system, you better have the power to back it up.
Freshened Up
With the foundations in place, the Speaker Works' rebuild moved to the front. Coe had built the fiberglass dash in order to aim the front speakers at the listener in a setup "more like a home audio system," Holdaway explains. At the middle, Speaker Works chose a CDT Audio ES-530 Braxial for a center channel. "This type of array offers advantages over a coaxial," states Holdaway, "and it still fit the build details of the original dash layout that Rich had built." At the edges of the dash, which wraps around the front of the compartment, they chose CDT Audio ES-520 component sets for the front left and right speakers.
Below the center channel, an Alpine DVI-9990 serves as the head unit with the F#1 Ion-Bus and fiber-optic cables running between the receiver and the PXI-H990 EQ/surround sound processor. This unit is key to the Bug's 5.1 surround as it fully decodes DVD Audio, DTS and Dolby Digital discs as well as creating a surround matrix from normal stereo recordings and radio through its Dolby ProLogic II encoder. With all this surround sound capability, passengers ought to have the ability to enjoy movies in glorious 5.1. So, last on the dash is a 7-inch monitor that receives video from an Icon-TV DVD-100 DVD player hidden behind it.
With such a dash, you can be sure that the area behind the front seats has just as much and more going on. For the rear surround speakers, Speaker Works opted for a CDT Audio ES-420 component set. Coe's custom fiberglass enclosures sit on the rear package tray and "are aimed back at the listener to put them on-axis for improved frequency response," Holdaway adds. Also in the rear package tray area is a divided enclosure made from 1"-thick fiberglass and a 1" birch plywood baffle board for two JBL W15GTI 15" subwoofers. Each of the inverted subs threatens to block the rearview mirror as they take advantage of 3ft3 of air space in the gelcoated box.
Big PunchesIn addition to two subwoofers, the Bug also features a pair of 12" woofers that act as midbass by being crossed over at 63Hz and 400Hz. Part of JBL's Professional Sound line, the 12 inchers mount into 1 1/2ft3 enclosures set into the rear quarter panels. "We went with the Prosound woofers," Holdaway explains, "because we wanted a high-efficiency driver that handled a ton of power and had an extended upper frequency range to be a midrange/woofer."
No more room in the passenger compartment means that the amplifiers must make their residence elsewhere. What better place than under the hood, which Coe motorized in the previous build? Source signal runs on Symbilink FireWire cables from Zapco fully balanced line drivers to the four massive Zapco amps. Enhancing the amps' cases, the install team mounted them to birch plywood that they laminated with brushed aluminum and 3/8" backlit acrylic.
When asked what's next for the Bug, Holdaway exclaims, "I plan to jump over three school busses that will be parked nose to tail." With over six months spent on the reinstallation at Speaker Works, not to mention all the expense put into the build, we can safely assume he's joking. Special thanks go out to John and Bob at Zapco, Chris and Andy at JBL, Kenneth at CDT Audio, Rich Coe, Cooper Tires, Cascade Audio Engineering and Bugs 4 You.
Tech
16" x 6", front, and 17" x 9", rear, custom Boyd's Billet Wheels195/45R16, front, and 275/40R17, rear, Cooper Zeon 2XS tires1835cc large bore stroker motor with dual port heads and oversized valves, Porsche 914 oil cooler and traction bar