"Stereos are meant to be heard, not seen," Ai Design's Matt Figliola states firmly. It's a strange principle for a builder to follow in a land where in-your-face show cars rule and stealthy systems get short shrift. As we chatted more about the 2005 Magnum Figliola's shop built for Panasonic, it became increasingly clear that Figliola doesn't meekly follow that tenet - he fiercely embraces it.
"I don't really like what our industry does as a whole, what the majority does," Figliola reveals. "I just see brightly painted fiberglass amorphous shapes everywhere. It gets so boring."
Apparently Panasonic's director of the mobile electronics group, Rob Lopez, agrees with him. "Mr. Lopez definitely didn't want to do fiberglass and super-standout fixtures inside the car," relates Figliola. "He wanted something that was more conservative, more built-in, more hidden - he still wanted it to be a car."
Well, that's exactly what Lopez got. The Magnum bulges with the sheer quantity of products you'd expect in a demo vehicle, but you wouldn't know that by looking at it. Ai Design managed to pack everything in without destroying the wagon's factory aesthetics. In fact, Figliola built on the cosmetics that already existed, playing up a hot roddish look while finding unobtrusive solutions to incorporating new electronics.
A Hot Rod Accent
None of the interior lines changed, but Figliola added a few touches starting with the, as he puts it, "bland and boring" factory dash. For added style, he fabricated a chrome line across the front. Similar chromed strips run throughout the wagon, from the doors to the cargo space floor. The upholstery, done in-house by Jairo Ortiz, echoes the chrome. Metallic grommets stud the front and rear seat inserts, further accented by "what we call a modified Ferrari Daytona stitch pattern," Figliola says. Overhead, the olive green headliner sports a red French stitch. "It really worked with the car because the exterior paint has a lot of green in it," he says.
Subtlety Ahead
Another accent gleams upfront in the form of the piano black insert. "It looks simple, but actually a lot of work was put into it," Figliola attests of the overall dash. However, the obvious double-DIN monitor at center was a relatively easy upgrade compared to the discreet center channel. Figliola and Robert Renda, who did most of the electronics and fabrication, put a lot of thought into the center channel design. The resulting polygon shape helps it blend in with the dash. "It really looks as though it came that way," says Figliola.
In their factory locations, the Magnum's front and rear speakers could also trick you into thinking they came straight from the production plant. In addition to coaxes in the dash, components take up residence in the doors. Figliola admits that the door locations aren't ideal since the tweeter lies so far from the midrange. Nonetheless, he went with them due to the ample space and because new enclosures would stick out. Remember, in this Magnum speakers should be heard, not seen. The only visible change to the doors is hardly noticeable at all - metal grilles (camouflaged with paint) replace the OE plastic.
Packing A Punch
Unobtrusively integrating new speakers in factory locations doesn't flex an installer's stealth muscle. Most do-it-yourselfers can pull that off with ease. Instead, the area that proclaims that skill set the most is the cargo space. You wouldn't know it by just looking, but Ai Design finagled four 10" subs and four amps under a false floor. A grille covering the bass outlet provides the only visual clue to the amount of equipment beneath.