Car Audio and Electronics has always featured some of the best, most outstanding vehicles around. Looking through old issues it's truly amazing to see the giant advances as installers learned more about electronics, motorization, different materials and sound quality fundamentals. As you would expect, some of the most visually exciting and outlandish installations have been factory vehicles. The factories have much greater access to talent, product and, of course, money. When you see the vehicles they build to show off their products, you expect them to be incredible. It's the same principle as a factory backed race team -- they'd better win.
For years now, CES has been the place for not only the introduction of all the upcoming cool products, but also where we see all the new factory vehicles. 2001 was no exception with some astounding cars and trucks in the manufacturers' booths. Rockford Fosgate has been doing a new car every two years and we knew this year they were going to have a new one. It was going to be hard to follow in the footsteps of the Dodge Ram they had previously created, but it's their job to raise the bar every time. The 2001 Nissan Frontier Quad Cab shown on these pages is a true worthy successor to the Dodge.
Rockford Technical Training Institute's (RTTI) Senior Vehicle Designer, Bryan Schmitt created the Frontier almost entirely on his own. The design theme was actually the result of an early morning ride on his Banshee ATV in the Arizona desert near where he lives. "I knew we had to get started on the truck. It was already at RTTI and Jason (Bryan's right hand man) was beginning to take out the interior. Things were even tighter this year because we had to have it ready for the SEMA show which is almost two months before CES. Topping the Dodge was going to be tough so I knew I'd better take a ride," says Bryan.
Getting the story form Jason Digos, who worked with Bryan day in and day out on all the fabrication and construction, is pretty much the same. "We got the trucks (two of them) in late September right from Nissan. They were the updated body style with the supercharger that wasn't even for sale yet. I started to take them apart and Bryan came in Saturday when we'd decided to start and said 'I had a vision in the desert and this is how we're going to do it!'" Jason explains.
Bryan immediately went to a rack full of materials and got some plastic rod to show Jason how the box would be rounded and how these loops on the front of it would continue the design of the large fender flares on the truck's wheel wells. Indeed, if you take a look at the outer loops of the sub box, then look at the oversized flares on the truck you'll see how the design of the truck is also the design of the stereo installation. Bryan used not only the styling and design of the truck through out the installation, but the theme or intended lifestyle of the truck as well. The bike rack in the truck bed and the huge Axis wheels fit with the outdoor lifestyle Nissan targets.
The installation was actually done in two phases. The first was done for the SEMA show in early November. In this phase, the sub box, the seats, the paint and all the work in the truck bed were done. The parts that weren't complete yet were the door panels, interior detail painting and the roof (video screen).
Like Jason mentioned earlier, the first thing they did was to completely gut the truck. Once that was done, aluminum backed dampening mat was added to every surface, with two layers in some places. With everything damped, wires could be added. The entire Frontier is wired up with Rockford Fosgate Connecting Punch power and speaker cable and interconnects. With all of this groundwork laid, the truck went off to the painter, Rocky's Pure Kustom, for its outrageous red, black and silver paint. At the same time, the factory seats were being completely re-done with the red, black and silver theme, in leather. Even the headrests have a custom aluminum Rockford Fosgate logo molded into them.
According to Bryan, "The focal point for the Frontier's installation was the sub box. That's where I had my vision in the desert and so once all the groundwork was set, that's where we began first with the fabrication." He and Jason started by making a mockup of one side of the sub box, basically a front plate that would hold three subs. Using that for the basis of the sub box's curved shape, he started on the curve of the rings that come out from the enclosure. The result isn't quite circular but more like a combination of two elliptical curves. Overall, the design was beginning to shape in reality, not just in Bryan's head.
To simplify construction, Bryan decided on a component or modular technique. Starting with a large panel of wood that would make up the back of the entire box, they started to add pieces or modules. First were two sub boxes, each holding three RFP-3210 10-inch dual voice coil woofers. They're actually built of flat panels that are filled in with body filler to match the contour of the sides. Next comes the arches. There are four of these and they're all built basically the same. Each part has the same left and right side, further simplifying construction. From left to right are: MDF panel, aluminum panel, Plexiglas panel, neon, Plexiglas panel, aluminum panel and MDF panel. They're basically a neon sandwich. A perforated aluminum panel sits between the left and right sides hiding the neon and letting the edge of the Plexi glow. To match the wheel well arches' design, the sub box arches have notches with big Allen-head bolts in them.
The next trick in the box's design is something that nearly everyone, myself included, misses. The Rockford Fosgate 10-inch subs are in a vented enclosure and the gap between the two arches in the middle of the box make a slot-loaded vent. If you look really close, you'll see another wider band of perforated aluminum in between those two arches. It's not possible to put your hand through the arches either. That's because a piece of 1/2" Plexi fills both arcs to form the sides of the port.
Looking inside the box with the woofers out, you see it's a common airspace so all the woofers use the port. "Designing that part was really hard," says Bryan. "I put the woofer specs into TermLab and it told me I would need a little over eight cubic feet for the six subs. We had four people measure the internal volume of the box in there own way to make sure we were right. We didn't know for sure until it was done and we checked the resonance of the port. Then I put the measured port resonance into TermLab and basically worked it backwards. We hit the required box volume and port size to within 5%. Not easy considering the odd size of the box and port!"
Mounting the system's four amplifiers used much of the same technique with an arching back plate and the similar arches. Only this time, the arches and curve of the amp rack are the same, not opposite like the sub box. A pair of Rockford Fosgate Power 500.2 stereo amps run Fanatic 6.5-inch component speakers mounted in the front and rear doors. Another pair of amps, digital Power bd 1000.1s, juice three 10-inch subs each. All the wiring for them is conspicuously routed through oval aluminum tubes that run under the amps and connect to the arches on either side.
Up front, the dash was left pretty close to stock. Removable trim panels were were pulled, sanded, primed and painted the same metallic finish as the body. The factory double-DIN spot was filled with a new Rockford Fosgate RFX9400 CD player as well as a Rosen DVD player. Extra work was put into making them look factory by constructing a new trim ring that fit tightly enough around the outer edge of the factory bezel to be painted and look like one solid piece. Connected to the DVD player is a Rosen 6.4-inch screen. It's mounted in a custom assembly that is permanently attached to the roof. Continuing the theme of the arched aluminum pieces, a long arching section of oval tube extends from the rear of the roof towards the front. It ends just before the area where the screen drops out of its flush mounted cavity.
The door panels on the truck are Bryan's final opus. Using the factory panels as a guide only, new ones were made from wood, aluminum, fiberglass, foam, abs plastic and vinyl. They start off with a thin sheet of aluminum as the back panel, then move up to wood as the U-shaped pieces that hold the tweeter at the top and the mid at the bottom. This is covered with black vinyl. The center insert is plastic with body filler and paint work to match the truck.
The crowing touches are the psuedo-speaker grills and the door handles. A pair of aluminum rods are bent in a slow arch over the center of the speakers and then appear to disappear into the center section of the door. Both the mid and the tweeter get this treatment. The door handles have the same curve and big bolts like the wheel wells, but narrow down in the center to section of aluminum tube. The entire thing is incredibly solid and amazingly lightweight.
That leaves only the truck bed. Here Bryan and Jason put six Lightning Audio SBX 1500 batteries and a pair of Cascade Audio 90-amp power supplies in a custom enclosure. Hand made aluminum bus bars connect all the batteries to the system. The shape even has windows to show the voltage meters on the batteries. The whole thing is made from box steel and then covered with a tough and waterproof plastic skin. Hanging out in the bed are a pair of trick Titus mountain bikes on a rack also made by Bryan and Jason. This continues the lifestyle theme of the truck. The second Frontier will get a surfboard in the bed.
A huge hit at SEMA and then again at CES, the truck went to the Chicago International Auto Show in late January. It was featured in Nissan's own booth as part of a joint venture between Rockford Fosgate and Nissan. The first day, the truck was an overwhelming hit. So big in fact, that it had to be roped off for all the remaining days. Its next two stops are the New York International Auto Show and then off to Daytona Beach for the Spring Break Nationals.
All told Bryan figures there are about 2000 man hours and $150,000 into the trucks. If the typical work year is 2080 hours, then Bryan and Jason compressed one year of work into 10 weeks. They had help from others, but their average workday was in at 8 or 9 and home at 11 or midnight, every day for the first five weeks until SEMA and then again for the last four weeks up to CES.
I joked with Bryan that he'll be OK because he won't have to do it again until the fall of 2002 as Rockford Fosgate typically stays with their demo vehicles for two years. He says, "This is by far the most intense installation I have ever completed. It was definitely worth it. The only problem is we have to top it!"