When Jan and Monte Bennett decided to outfit their 2000 Volkswagen GTi with a competition-level audio system, they knew right away they wanted something different, something that no one else on the competition circuit was going to have. For the Bennetts, that meant tricking out their daily driver with the latest and greatest in mobile A/V technology: the car PC.
"I like the idea of it," co-owner Jan Bennett says of the onboard computer system, "and I really feel like it's the future of car audio. It combines everything in one place and it has limitless potential. Whatever you can do on your home PC can be done in the car, and that's really what drew me to it. That, and I'm kind of a nerd."
For her, competing with a car-based computer system was just the next step in an evolution that began in high school, when she first got into car audio. It was a risk, as the do-everything PC hadn't really been tested in competition. But so far it's worked out well; they took home first place and best of show at the USACi World Finals last year. "I've had a lot of people contact me for advice on this stuff," she says. She predicts that more and more competitors will start seriously considering in-car computing and says, "I think it's great. I want to see more of it. In the very near future I think car PCs are going to overtake regular car audio units, especially if we can figure out a way to do all the tuning on the PC itself."
The Bennetts began their installation by removing the factory audio system and treating the entire vehicle with sound dampening material. They then mounted an 8-inch VGA touchscreen in the dash opening where the factory radio had been and installed the car PC behind the rear seat. Track selection and "everything else" is done directly through the PC via the touchscreen, while an Alpine PXA-H701 surround-sound processor and controller up front handle the volume and tuning controls, all integrated into the factory interior. "Hopefully, we'll eventually be able to get rid of the Alpine and actually do all the audio processing on the computer. That's the next step."
From there, they plotted out their speaker placements, mounting a pair of Focal Beryllium tweeters in the GTi's front pillars. For Bennett, the Berylliums were a "no-brainer," offering the kind of tunable performance she wanted for SQ competition. And, given the car's space constraints, the pillars were the logical place to mount them. "We decided to put the tweeters up there to raise the soundstage off the floor and create it out more in front of us."
Given the limited legroom, the Bennetts had to literally cut into the car's firewall to make space for their custom kick panels. And even then, they weren't able to get as much room for the 6 1/2" Focal Beryllium mids as they wanted. "We're probably at maybe 0.2ft3 or 0.3ft3 for each side, which is not enough," she says, "but it's all we have right now and we're working with it."
Based on friends' recommendations and their own competition experience, they went with a single 16" Focal K2 Power 40 KX subwoofer, knowing that it could handle their power requirements and deliver the best sound quality performance. And, by pairing it with a Steg K2|02 amp, they got a bass setup that looks as good as it sounds.
Bennett and Co. then fabricated an amp/sub rack for the rear hatch area using 2 1/4" steel pipe and MDF. "We knew we wanted this very industrial look to go along with the design of the amplifiers," she says. The amp delivers the consistent power they need for competition bass, while a second Steg K4|01 amp on the rack drives the front speakers.
Overall, Bennett says, they ended up exceeding their goals for the GTi. "We never actually thought it was going to turn out as well as it did," she laughs. "When we finished putting everything in we took a step back and both went 'whoa.' We actually did what we really wanted to do."