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Something original in a Commodore sound install - Matt Telling’s VT GTS

Originality can be a hard thing to achieve with a Holden Commodore.

After all, just about everyone has a ‘Dore with after-market wheels, the obligatory body kit and, of course, a boot load of sound gear.

In Western Australia particularly of late, there has been a plethora of Commodores decked out with serious sound equipment, yet they’ve all tended to be copies of the renowned Alpine and Pioneer demo cars.

Not surprisingly then, when word about Matt Telling’s new VT sound car filtered through, we were somewhat sceptical.

Would it just be yet another copy, happily following the path of convention created by someone else ?

The answer can clearly be seen in the photos and Matt must be congratulated for coming up with something new.

It’s all about originality of course, and while using checker plate for a boot install is nothing new, the way in which it has been blended and combined with the actual hardware is very aesthetically pleasing indeed.

As Matt himself said; "I wanted the heavy duty industrial look and I think that has been achieved."

But is it really what it seems?…
The checker plate is actually laminex (as in what kitchen benches are covered with), but it still had to be cut to shape with a metal blade in a jig saw.

The plate was obtained through Perth’s GBI Industries and it took Matt several weeks to choose from quite a few different finishes.

"You just wouldn’t believe how many different types and styles of laminex there are out there, let alone vinyl, but I think that the end result speaks for itself," he said.

Indeed, and the laminex plus vinyl has been matched perfectly to the finish of those Rockford amps and Lightning caps.

It has to be said that the cabin in Matt’s VT doesn’t scream for the same attention as the boot.

Perhaps that’s fair enough as it helps to deter unwanted attention and allows the boot to be displayed only at shows and to fellow audiophiles.

Now, although the cabin looks simple, a fair bit of work was undertaken in the interests of sound quality.

Insulation before componentry
The entire installation was performed by Michael Macey at Caples in Fremantle, but before he even started on the electronics, Michael applied 80 square-foot of Dynamat Super sound deadener.

This went onto the doors, the rear shelf, parts of the floor and under the hoodlining.

A thermal acoustic cockpit liner called Tac Mat was also utilised, while Deflex pads went behind all the door mounted speakers.

With the cabin prepared, it was time to start adding components and a Clarion DRX 9255 went into the centre console with ease.

As to why Matt didn’t go for the ‘obligatory’ CV-whatsit from you-know-who ... "I had a CVA in my Lancer with V-CD, TV, CD ...... I never used the half of it."

Clarion’s DRX 9255 is a renowned little unit and as Matt’ says; "It just plays CDs and plays them extraordinarily well."

With the head unit in place, it was time to add the Alpine DDC F17C 6 ½" splits to each front door.

As with the rear fill, all the mids and tweeters have been mounted into the original factory Holden positions, while the Alpine crossovers for those front DDCs have been mounted into a custom frame in the front passenger footwell.

The trend might well be to place these crossovers in the doors, but as Matt so eloquently put it; "I wasn’t going to trash my original GTS door trims just for a set of crossovers..."

Curiously, near perfect imaging has been achieved by mounting the tweeters on custom brackets in front of the mids.

Naturally, the tweeters and mids have been angled for correct staging too.

The same set up has been applied to the DDS-R17G 6" two-ways in the back doors and that’s essentially the front and rear staging.

A bootful of magic tricks
It’s the contents of the boot which ties all of these cabin components together, especially the four Rockford amplifiers.

To assist with the industrial, metallic and black theme, Matt says he basically had two amplifier choices - Kicker or Rockford.

The latter got the nod simply because Matt has had plenty of experience on the Rockford front and the all new a2 series amps are as good as it gets from the big R.

It can be seen from the circuit diagram that this system is all about combining tuneablity with power.

No one would add two of those massive Crossfire CFQ31M 31 band parametric equalisers plus a Punch X 3-way crossover without wanting to tune for sound quality, while running most of the amps in bridge mono mode is playing the classic power game.

Don’t be too surprised if you haven’t seen much of those Crossfire equalisers before, as they’re fairly new on the market.

In fact, at the time of writing this article, Crossfire didn’t even have the CFQ31M on its official website !

Still, thanks to WA’s AudioXtra State Manager, Aldo Di Toro, some basic info on the CFQ31M was obtained.

The reason for installing two of them in the VT, by the way, is that the CFQ31M is a mono equaliser, so two are required for stereo operation.

With a selectable range of either +/- 6dB or +/- 12dB and with the input plus output levels adjustable for perfect matching with other components, the Crossfire EQs are quite a versatile piece of equipment..

Combined with a Punch X crossover as in this install, there’s enough processing power to keep any knob fiddler happy.

Incidentally, the crossover points set with the Punch X are fairly straightforward - 90Hz and 200Hz.

That big mamma Power 1100 a2 amplifier has additionally been given a sub sonic protection card of 25Hz.

It’s common knowledge that Rockford tend to quote lower power figures than their amps actually produce, and while the 1100 a2 is rated at 1100 Watts in bridge mono mode, in this instance the figure is claimed to be closer to 1300 Watts.

Admittedly, ensuring that those three Alpine SWR-304d 12" subs present a total load of around 1.5 Ohms helps the cause.

The subs are mounted into a fully sealed 2.55 cubic foot MDF sub box that has been fibreglassed on the inside for absolute air tightness.

Curiously, Macey hasn’t ported the sub box directly through the rear shelf as such.

Instead, the subs are allowed to fire into the boot itself and then through the custom rack for those Crossfire equalisers and into the cabin via factory holes in the rear parcel shelf.

These holes have then been covered in the cabin with VT Calais grilles.

The rack for the Crossfires is really a frame, with speaker cloth stretched across the bottom for a neat finish and which also allows the bass into the cabin.

Better when driven hard…
The two 360 a2 amps running the left and right sides to the front fill meanwhile, are said to be producing ‘at least’ their rated maximum of 360 Watts RMS into two Ohm loads.

This power figure is of course with the amps running in bridged mono mode, although it’s interesting to note that Alpine rate their DDC-F17C splits at a maximum of 220 Watts.

Nonetheless, that 360 Watt figure is really an extreme and both Michael and Matt say that the Alpine DDCs are tough buggers which play better when driven hard anyway !

As for the 250 a2 running the rear fill, this too is operating as rated, which is 62.5 Watts RMS out of each channel into four Ohm loads.

Apart from the rear fill, big power figures require a serious power supply and although the VT’s alternator hasn’t been touched, those four 1uF capacitors in the boot are more than noticeable.

Take a closer look at the photos though, and you’ll see that Matt has gone for 0 gauge Streetwires braided power cabling.

The braided look certainly adds to the overall visual impact, but it wasn’t easy to obtain and as Matt acknowledges; "The only other vehicle I’ve seen the braided cable on is that Pioneer truck."

The heavy duty power side to this car was originally going to see Matt go completely crazy.

"Yeah, we were going to have this huge distribution block in the middle of the boot with bus bars and that, but it would have looked way too crowded !"

As a complete package, there’s no denying that Matt’s VT is an original and as such, will no doubt be copied by many.

At least it’s good to know that you’ve got the original...