It was Keith Lehmann who discovered the BMW C-1 on one of his trips to MB Quart headquarters in Germany. Lehmann was on a mission since last Daytona Spring Break Nationals. After the debut of the highly publicized MB Ski, a personal watercraft outfitted with an audio system by the crew at Fishman Audio, he knew it was going to be tough to top it at Daytona this year. Explaining the philosophy behind this new venture, MB QUART President Keith Lehmann said "When MB QUART unveiled the MB Ski at the 2000 Spring Break Nationals, we realized that an attention-getting tradition could be started if we made a genuine creative commitment and got more people involved at the beginning. We intend to use this vehicle to promote the creative side of mobile electronics by showing off new installation techniques and cutting-edge products used in a vehicle that people would expect to see in a James Bond movie."
Keith Lehmann is no stranger to David "Fishman" Rivera. They have built a friendship over the past ten years in the 12 volt industry. Since the inception of Fishman Audio, Rivera has completed several projects for Lehamnn. "I've always been the one to come up with the crazy idea and sell it to Keith, but this time he beat me to it," says Rivera. When he first heard that Lehmann had something in store for him he had a great sense of anticipation. Fishman was kept in suspense till after USAC Finals last year when the first visual of the C1 arrived at Fishman Audio. It was a color brochure of the BMW scooter. Rivera's first reaction was, "This is bad," as he immediately realized that he had a huge challenge ahead of him. Flipping through the brochure, Fishman and Manny "Maddog" Machado, Fishman's right hand man, began studying all the possibilities of what to do to the C1. The suspense actually became a reality when the scooter finally arrived at Fishman Audio via FedEx, in early Februaury. The next morning Fishman began taking apart the C1, looking for any kind of space for all the audio and video equipment, which was on its way. It was decided early on that the audio equipment should strictly complement the chosen vehicle; thus an Alpine audio/video system was incorporated, using the CVA-1005 multimedia system controller; DVA-5205 DVD player; PHA-H510 Dolby Digital 5.1 digital sound processor; MRD-F572 five-channel amplifier; and MRP-F306 two-channel amplifier. Also A Stinger battery, power wire and interconnects were chosen to connect all the equipment.
Maddog recalls the first few days of the scooter in the shop. "He took apart the bike in like half an hour; there were bolts everywhere, panels everywhere, the scooter looked ugly naked. He sat back for three days just starring at the bike, studying every angle on it."
It was on the fifth day Fishman decided to start fabricating a home for the front speakers. Realizing they had about a month to finish the scooter for Spring Break Nationals, the Latin duo came up with a plan to execute the project in the allotted time. The plan was for Fishman to begin fabrication on the scooter and after the basic shape was attained, Maddog would take over and finish smoothing out the panels, getting them ready for paint. Working like this they were able to complete the bike in exactly one month. Maddog says, "This teamwork allowed Dave to continue fabricating while I finished the pieces." The front speaker pods were the first of many challenges. Fishman recalls "The turn signals were somewhat in the way where I wanted to put the speakers, so I cut out the turn signals and relocated them further out to allow room for the MB Quart RKC116 coaxial." After fiberglassing a new home for the coaxials Maddog smoothed them out and got them ready for future painting.
The second challenge was to incorporate a pair of RKC110 coaxial loudspeakers for rear fill. Rivera again came up with a unique crescent moon shape on the back of the C1, which was molded to the rear panel just behind the headrest. As the scooter began to take shape, Fishman's initial goal of making the scooter look like it came that way from factory was coming together.
The third challenge was to mount the Alpine CVA-1005 and the DVD player. The only thing standing in the way was the instrument cluster, so Rivera decided to eliminate it. Fishman explains, "The instrument cluster is no use since this scooter is not street legal in the U.S., so I decided to make more room for the Alpine pieces." Fishman made some brackets to mount the CVA and DVD and then Maddog took over fabricating a brand new dash piece. Maddog fabricated a whole new look on the dash panel, integrating a Dakota Digital ODY-05-3 volt meter and a DOY-15-1 temperature meter on the left side, and the molding in the control for the PHA-H510 on the right side. Maddog also added another RKC110 4-inch speaker for center channel playback when watching DVD movies.
Now with the front section taking shape, Fishman turned his attention to the back which was to be the home for an MB Quart PWD254 10-inch subwoofer, an Alpine MRD-F572 five-channel amplifier, an MRP-F306 two-channel amplifier, and the brain for the CVA-1005, the PHA-H510 and a Stinger SPB-1000 battery. "This was the probably the toughest section on the scooter," Rivera recalls. Meanwhile as Maddog finished the dashboard, he needed a spot to mount a 55-amp power supply. Realizing Fishman had a bunch of gear to mount in the back, Maddog discovered a spot in the front bumper. Maddog states, "The only place the power supply could go was in the front bumper, but I didn't want to eliminate the foam completely, so I cut into the foam just enough for the power supply to fit. I made a pair of brackets out of aluminum and the front bumper slipped back on with the foam now surrounding the power supply. When I was done it looked like it was supposed to go there cause the fan from the power supply is at the front of the bumper which is open so it can pull air from outside and through the power supply"
The challenge of locating all that gear in the back left Fishman perplexed for a few days. Rivera says, "I couldn't just start stacking stuff; I needed to follow all the curves of what we had done in front." Unfortunately that week Fishman slept very little at night just thinking how to integrate everything and yet make it look like it was part of the scooter. With Maddog caught up in the front, he began by making a steel basket for the Stinger battery that would sit above the rear tire. Now that the battery was mounted Rivera and Machado teamed up to construct a steel frame with two levels that would form the mounting rack for the processors and the 2-channel amplifier. Once that was accomplished it was time to dress up the rack to incorporate the 5-channel amplifier and 10-inch subwoofer.
Fishman began by fabricating a shroud that went over the back end of the scooter and became the mounting spot for the amplifier. The amplifier was mounted on a piece of Plexiglas which was painted silver to match the silver accents on the bike. The next step was to add the subwoofer above the amplifier. Maddog built an enclosure in a shape of a wedge to make the integration smoother. The final piece finally hit Fishman on how he was to integrate the subwoofer. Staring at the scooter one day from the side he followed the curves from the front all the way to the back tail light and noticed there was a drop-off right after the rear speaker. Rivera mounted the subwoofer in a way where the curve continued all the way to the back of the scooter. The final piece that was added to the subwoofer was a custom grill to match the silver bars on the scooter -- and molding a BMW emblem on the back of the subwoofer to "give it the final touch" Fishman says.
When all the pieces were ready to be painted, they took a visit to DR. E "Emilio" at IEO Customs who was able to match the factory BMW red and paint all the pieces just before the MBC-1 made its way to Daytona. During the installation (which Fishman had to accomplish in record time), he also faced a few setbacks, which tested his limits. First he had an encounter with the front grille of a car while biking home one day after work. This is proof that he can take a licking and keep on ticking.
Delivering the MBC-1 to Daytona Beach in time for Spring Break Nationals was a major challenge for Rivera, who explains "I've never done anything like this before, and the small spaces I had to work with forced me to be more creative than ever. Plus it's a BMW with incredible quality so I needed to build it like BMW would build it. But I'm satisfied with the result, and it's just like something James Bond would drive. Maybe we'll install a machine gun and smoke cannon, but I gotta talk to Keith about it." Once there Keith Lehmann's mission was complete with the MBC-1 becoming the talk of the show once again. The MBC-1 will tour selected MB QUART dealers and appear at a few major events throughout 2001. Mission accomplished.