Pictures are, as they say, worth a thousand words, but looking at gear in a catalog or on a website doesn't do much if you're taking stock of audio equipment. In this case, you've got to hear it to really get the picture. That's why Panasonic picked up this 2005 Scion tC. It's not a car - it's a display case for Panasonic Mobile Electronics gear, including their brand-new Strada nav system. Jonathan Frank, Panasonic's national trainer, oversaw the installation and did some work himself with the help of Traffic Jams Car Audio (in Buford, GA), John Marsh, Calvin Thomas, Chris Anderson and Kevin Mutters.
Exterior
The tC has a full-body kit from tC Sportline with a carbon-fiber hood and trunk lip. AAP Motorsports in Suwanne, GA, did the performance aspect of the install. Future plans for this tC include a turbocharger.
Center stack
The centerpiece of the system is Panasonic's Strada CN-NVD905U, a 30GB HDD in-dash navigation unit. Originally the center console was molded to hold a single-DIN SAV unit, but with the release of the Strada in the U.S., Panasonic altered the previous modification for the double DIN. Its 7-inch screen is the first of four in the tC.
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Dash, overall
The front stage begins with a pair of 5.25" coaxials mounted in the A-pillars. The CJ-DA1323U's are mounted in pods that began with routered MDF rings, which were glued to the scuffed A-pillars, wrapped in fleece, and then coated with fiberglass and resin. After scuffing them out with body filler, they texture coated and dyed them black.
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Doors
The doors hold both a pair of Panasonic 6.75" 3-way speakers (CJ-DA1733U) and a couple 7-inch headrest monitors (CY-V7100U). The installers used the same fiberglass techniques from the A-pillars to create the door pods and flushed in the monitors with more fiberglass. The overall door panel was wrapped in vinyl and the fiberglass pieces were painted to match the exterior - tribal graphics included.
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