As part of our 20th anniversary retrospective, we're showcasing some of our favorite vehicles of the past two decades. You'll be able to vote on your favorite car later. Here's the 5th installment.
Mating classic eighties style with cutting-edge technology, long-time competitor Philip Petracca's Mercedes-Benz 560SEC provides the definitive in-car listening experience. It had to in order to compete against the world's best. With so much attention paid to achieving audio excellence, Petracca and his team forewent the installation of video source units and monitors. So, there's nothing to distract from the audio. Just pure, solid sound.
The layout of the system is deceptively simple. Dead center of the radically restructured dash, sits an Alpine F#1 Status DVI-9990 AM/FM/CD/DVD-Audio source unit, the flagship successor to the legendary 7909. Two PXA-H990 processors installed in the back deck handle the signal processing chores while the trunk has been redesigned to accept six Zapco custom hand-built amplifiers: four 4-channel amps with a pair of 2-channel amps bridged into mono.
Given that the vehicle would be primarily for competition, the team felt confident about performing the always-risky task of stripping the area behind the dash, including the air conditioner, all instrumentation, as well as all unnecessary wiring. What was left of the factory wiring harness was cleaned up and moved so that it would allow the front stage speakers to be installed in optimal locations, in the hope of eliminating any reflected sounds. The windshield wiper system was also removed to allow for the speakers and their enclosures.
Clearly, the team exercised sound field tyranny, not allowing anything to compromise the quality of the audio experience in pursuit of competition excellence. Yet, Petracca admits the awards are not motivation enough. When asked about his advice to newcomers, he says, "get involved in our hobby for the love of music, cars and meeting people. If you do this for awards and accolades alone, the end result of your experience will not be nearly as rewarding."
Here are some of the other vehicles we've featured in our 20th anniversary retrospective:
Speakerworks Buick Grand National
Steve Brown's Acura