In the general automotive world, many enthusiasts build custom cars using an older, cheaper ride as the base. Peter Colello did just the opposite with his '02 Toyota Celica GT. He bought the car new in April 2002 with the full intention to modify it as soon as possible. He hand drew his designs for the build and talked to some of the best installers in the nation, including Dave "Fishman" Rivera, who performed the first stage of the build.
But while the Celica was at an engine shop, thieves broke into the car, tore up the interior and made off with all of the original Polk Audio gear. The ride would need some serious fixing up and while being worked on, Colello threw a few more mods in to boot. "Fishman was located in Daytona Beach, FL, at the time. He did a lot of great work, but it was too difficult to smooth out the details with thousands of miles between us," Colello explains. For that reason he went with Greg Kitching at Town Sound in Hanover, PA. "Town Sound is only about 20 minutes from my house; it was easier to oversee the project at a shop close to home," Colello says. Instructions for each installer consisted of only three words to describe his ideas: over-the-top.
Over-The-Top Tone
There is no mistaking Colello's Celica for anything stock-from any angle. The interior, which once had provisions for four seats, is now designed for a lone driver. Resembling the cockpit of a spaceship, the all-fiberglass interior is a mix between sci-fi and a car audiophile's wet dream. Fishman set the vehicle's tone with a pod of 13 gauges that line the top of the dashboard, a custom jet-inspired steering wheel that juts out from the dash and, in lieu of the seat commonly known as "shotgun," a bottle of nitrous surrounded by five capacitors that remind a person of some futuristic device.
Fishman also installed amps in the ceiling, four Lanzar HRW 1540 15-inchers in the back and did all the original fiberglass panels, which were torn up during the theft. For the rebuild, Colello wanted to repair the damage and add as many TVs as possible to the already packed system. Other than that, he left Kitching pretty much alone in the design process. "I liked the Fishman install," Kitching reveals, "so I tried to add with that in mind." He did such a good job that you can't tell which parts were the first build and which were the second.