November,
2001 Rockadore
– a VX wagon full of Rockford Fosgate goodies Pushing
the boundaries
and attempting to come up with something new is always a challenge in
the car audio game. So
it was inevitable that the resurgence in graphics and spray painted
murals would spread across to the car audio scene and this VX wagon
from Perth is a prime example of graphics and audio combined.
This
meant any loss of space had to be minimised and is one reason why the
system’s two Rockford Fosgate amps are mounted off to one side - as
mounting them into that radical floor and providing enough space
around the amps for cooling purposes, would have simply encroached too
much on the available cargo area. But
let’s start up front, where a Rockford Fosgate RFX8340 head unit has
been mounted into the VX’s factory DIN socket. Looks
stock – but is it? These are the gains for the
system’s amplifiers and have been remotely mounted (away from the
amps that is) in the centre console for ease of tuning on the move. Likewise,
a Rockford Fosgate OEQ2 processor on roller bearing filing cabinet
sliders under the front passenger seat can be easily accessed by the
driver, although we’d like to think that he (she ?) would stop the
car before leaning across to make any adjustments ! The
OEQ2 adds quite a bit of tuning potential to the vehicle, as it has 10
bands of equalisation, Rockford’s own variation of balanced line
technology, up to 8-Volts RMS outputs and, wait for it, frequency
warp. Don’t
panic if it all sounds like a load of high tech’ gobbledygoock -
because here comes a crash course in car audio. Equalisation
allows things like bass and treble to be adjusted for personal
preference, frequency warp permits octave adjustment and up to 8 Volts
of signal output means the gains on the amplifiers can be turned down
which results in cleaner sound. See,
car audio is easy to understand.
More
specifically, two channels are wired up to Rockford Fosgate FNX 1514
5 ¼” splits, with the mids installed in the factory front
door positions and the associated tweeters up in the factory air vents
on the dash. The
remaining two channels of the G600a4 amp are however used to provide
juice to a couple of 6” Rockford Fosgate FNQ 1406 mid bass speakers
in the footwells. A
rather unusual position for speakers, but they don’t really look all
that out of place and are firmly mounted in custom sealed pods made
from a combination of MDF and fibreglass. A
neat finishing touch to these pods are their stainless dress rings
complete with laser cut Rockford logos that have been suitably welded
on top. Crossover
artistry The
5 ¼ splits, tweeters and those 6” mids in the footwells are all fed
by a custom passive crossover network that was specifically designed
for the car by Audioart’s head honcho, Yanddy Limadinata. Yandy’s
one of those people who actually understands the science of sound and
how it relates to electronics and car audio. Not surprisingly, his
custom passive crossover networks are made to exact tolerances and
from the highest quality components. And
just for those who are perhaps new to car audio, crossovers ensure
that the correct frequencies are fed to the correct speakers, yet
sound quality can also depend on the dB slopes and associated roll off
characteristics of crossovers. Now
you know. Before
heading right out back, we’ll go half way to the rear doors, which
have been fitted with Rockford Fosgate HPC1206 6” mids. These
don’t play a major role in the system and are actually driven
directly from the head unit, so they’re certainly not producing an
awful lot of power. Heart
of bass This
two channel amp is rated as producing 125 Watts RMS from each channel
with 4-ohm loads, but it’s when the channels are combined in the
common bridged mono format that the power levels start to rise. In
this case study, Audioart are claiming a figure closer to 500 Watts
RMS with a load of ‘around 1-Ohm’ and that figure can certainly be
proven by all of the mathematicians out there who know the relevant
formulas. The
‘feel’ of the bass is nice and tight thanks to the fully sealed
1.4 cubic foot box that the subs live in. It’s worth noting too that
while the sub box does dip into the spare wheel well, the hump that
the spare wheel bolts to has not been cut. That
man Chong wanted us to mention this, as apparently there are a lot of
cowboys in the car audio industry cutting metal out of cars like
nobody’s business. A big MISTAKE ! Ribs,
vertebrae, terminators…
Paul
says it took him a whole day to make the spine, which is hardly
surprising considering that all of the vertebrae were individually
hand carved from a template that Paul also spent some time perfecting. The
ribs too absorbed plenty of working hours and once again were
individually made from two pieces of MDF stacked one on top of the
other. Interestingly, all the ribs were made to the same length,
before being laid into position and then measured for cutting. Now,
if you’ve read this far and are wondering why the hell Paul opted
for ribs, vertebrae and terminator style graphics in the first place,
we’ll let Paul offer up an explanation. “The
customer wanted mainly Rockford gear in the car and if you look at any
of the Rockford catalogues from the past few years, they’ve always
had a flesh and mechanical theme.” Hmmm,
OK Paul, go on. “First
there was that Wolf with the red eyes, then last year they had the
body builder type dude who was half human and half terminator .... so
a natural progression on this was to use ribs and vertebrae, but with
terminator style murals and graphics.” Sounds
fair enough, and it was Shaun McNamara from Earwig Art in Perth who
applied the graphics. Coming from the motorcycle industry and with
plenty of prize winning Harleys to his credit, McNamara’s work is
simply exceptional. Back
to work
As
you’d expect too, there are numerous such one-off or problem-solving
touches involved with an install like this. Believe
it or not, but to prevent unwanted vibrations and resonance, the fuel
tank was dropped down so that the rear underbody of the vehicle could
be given a good layer of Dynamat sound deadening material. The
Deflex pads added into the front doors just behind those 5 ¼” mids
serve a similar purpose and then there’s all the quality wiring and
two stiffening capacitors to ensure that the bass is loud and strong. All
up it’s a relatively straightforward installation, but the use of
graphics and murals lifts it onto a completely new level. Nuts`n’Bolts OWNER:
Mustava Pee (er, who? Ed) MODEL:
VX wagon BODYKIT:
Holden By Design VX SS front bumper, VT side skirts
ENGINE
TYPE:
Holden V6 SUSPENSION:
Lowered Lovells springs all round with stock shocks
WHEELS/TYRES:
18” X 8 ½” Protech ‘Brock’ rims all round,
Falken 235/40/18 rubber
INTERIOR:
Stock
STEREO:
Rockford Fosgate RFX8340 head unit
Rockford Fosgate OEQ2 10-band equaliser & processor
1 X Rockford FosgateG600a4 amplifier, 1 X Rockford Fosgate
G500a2 amplifier
2 X Rockford Fosgate FNX1514 5 ¼” splits
2 X Rockford Fosgate FNQ1406 6” mids
2 X Rockford Fosgate HPC1206 6” 2-ways
2 X Rockford Fosgate RFP2210 10” subs
1 X Audioart & Technologies custom passive crossover
network
2 X Rockford Fosgate CP7410 stiffening capacitors
BUILD
PERIOD:
6 months
COST:
loadsa dollars
CONTACTS:
Audioart & Technologies 08 9485 1234
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