Car audio installer Dave Hary had just begun building the ICE system in this 2000 Audi S4 when he and a couple of friends went to watch the start of Playersrun, a rally for high-end cars. Having just completed some performance mods (listed in the Tech box later in this article), Hary and buds decided to see what the car could do. "We caught up to a Murcielago around the Caldwells on Interstate 80," Hary says. "The two guys in the Murcielago were screaming, 'What the @#*% did you do to that thing?!' after attempting to lose us." This little anecdote lets us know Hary's ride can haul ass, but this is CA&E - we want to know how good the audio system is when your hauling ass. Fortunately, Hary has another tale to tell: The Audi brought home second place in CA&E's ultimate show car competition, Trifecta. That's proof of merit enough for us.
Tricky Bass
From the monitors that have been smoothly slipped into the headliner to the amps submerged in the trunk floor, the Audi impressed our judges with clean finishes, superb aesthetics and great sound quality. Of course it didn't hurt having the twin turbos peeping through the hood. Perhaps the most impressive and certainly toughest to pull off section of the build was the rear deck. Looking at the Rockford Fosgate subs suspended midair in a baffle of acrylic, you can easily understand why this proved to be such a challenge. How'd Hary get the clear plastic to support the weight of the 15s? Reinforcing the deck with strong yet lightweight chromoly did the trick. "The car was not designed for SPL," Hary reveals. "But as a demo car for my shop, I needed it to move some air." To help achieve this, he sealed in the trunk by welding all holes and gaps shut and laid down Dynamat Xtreme (approximately 6 1/2 bulk packs of the sound-damping material smother the entire interior).
Power Aplenty
If the deck weren't so heavily reinforced, we'd fear that the giant sub magnets might eventually drop onto the pair of Rockford Fosgate amplifiers beneath them. Mounted onto a chromoly amprack attached to the trunk floor, the T30001bd runs at 1 ohm to the subs and a T15004 runs 2 ohms to the front and rear components. When it comes to juice, amps aren't the only fruit to squeeze. Hary backed up the install starting with the Tsunami high-output alternator. All cables and wires hail from Tsunami as well. "I chose to use Tsunami brand wiring throughout the car because of the flexibility and convenience of their nine-conductor speaker wire," Hary explains. Ought-gauge provides power, while 8-gauge runs to the subs. One of the two Optima YellowTop batteries resides in the factory compartment and the other hides in the spare tire well under the amps. As a final power supplement, Hary tucked the 100-farad capacitor in the driver's-side trunk panel.
More In The Door
Moving into the cab, Hary performed a bit of surgery on all four doors to install Rockford Fosgate Type RF components. The front doors received the most attention with a pair of 6 1/2" Rockford Fosgate midbasses and a pair of Type RF tweeters. The midbasses and one of the tweeters take up the lower portion of the built-out door panel while the other tweeter sits up in the factory location. The rear doors follow in the same style and build technique as the front doors, only they have just one set of Rockford Fosgate Type RS components.
What's Up?
Despite the impressive door panels, your eyes will probably glue onto the suede-wrapped headliner when sitting down in this S4. With 7-inch Farenheit monitors taking the place of sun visors, why wouldn't they? Also up in the headliner, Hary flushed in AudioControl's DQS right in front of the sunroof. This equalizer "allows you to perform all your tunings from inside the car," Hary states. The feed for the sound and the video comes from an Eclipse AVN5495 set into the dash.
After two months of work and more money than he can safely reveal ("I can't divulge that info otherwise my wife would kill me," he jokes), Hary achieved what he wanted: a show-winning vehicle that helps promote his business. Before hauling the car out to Las Vegas for the Trifecta Finals in November, Hary plans to change up the color, maybe tack on a wide body kit and upgrade the Rockford RF components with bigger Morel speakers all around, including a new center channel. We can't wait to see the results.
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Design Tech
Union, NJ
www.designtechnj.com
Tech
Body Mods
Reiger RS4 front bumper, rear bumper and rear window wingATP filled and shaved sideskirtsVIS hood with custom turbo ducts and eyebrows molded into the hoodCustom metal trunk wing molded into the quarter panelsSuspensionH&R race springs with Koni adjustable strutsWheelsAVUS 901s 19" with staggered lipsTires
Fuzion 235/35/19
Engine Mods
Custom twin turbo (T04S), downpipes, intercooler and piping Smoothed and polished intake manifold and valve covers Tial 44mm wastegates and blowoff valve Wiggen clamps on all charge pipes Precision injectors Unorthodox lightweight flywheel Clutch Masters Stg 5 clutch