Matt's Subaru Legacy GT

Our Installation Manager Matt has this sweet looking Subaru Legacy GT, with turbocharged all wheel drive sweetness.

Our challenge was to prepare it in a couple of weeks' time from start to finish with a custom high end sound system, custom fiberglass with high gloss paint, extensive sound deadening in the doors, all to have it on display at the Sacramento Autorama in February 2007, in the ARC Audio building.  We were on hand to help and represent Arc Audio.  The Arc Audio bunch are the greatest people, they build great products and stand behind everything.  That allows us to do the same when selling and installing their products-so you might say we're proud to be an authorized Arc Audio dealer.

Here's Matt's gorgeous Legacy GT.  Tony Camara made this front license plate for us with very short notice-so take all of your short notice, impossible deadline stuff to Tony (vinyl cutting, laser etching and horoscope expert), he loves it!

This picture shows the Audison capacitor with display, the subs, and one of the amps.  This picture really shows the quality of Matt's work, even the details buried deep inside the trunk and hardly visible.  S&S Auto Body on Auburn Blvd. shot color and clear onto Matt's enclosure (matching the car's exterior) after Matt spent many hours preparing the surface.  Thank you Ron, Tony, and crew!!!  Matt's prep work was preceded by hours of fabrication-really starting with raw materials and a vision. Perhaps even more important than the flawless cosmetic finish, Matt also constructed this entire subwoofer enclosure with optimum sealed airspace and of rigid, durable construction.  Almost an artistic flair, observe the shape of the capacitor's trim panel and how it almost seems to "unzip" to reveal the capacitor.

This shot shows how well Matt integrated a nice flush, vinyl wrapped trim panel around these amps and didn't lose his spare tire!  The design is simple for the amps, but still takes a bunch of skill and patience to produce the quality of work that Matt produces.  Placement of the amps in relation to the trim panel, vinyl wrapping same, getting the fundamentals of electrical connections and audio considerations worked out....  Matt should be proud.

 I (Rod) told Matt that I was eager to help (always happy to build stuff too) but mostly he told me not to touch anything.  It's not my fault he makes me laugh so much I can't hold things steady...  hehe ;) 

Here is another shot of Matt's sweet car.  His taillights and windows are tinted, 'the entire car is just silver and black.  It's really a sporty sedan with all wheel drive and 300HP.

This is also the area where Chip Foose walked through to reach the Arc Audio main table for the autograph signing sessions. ("I eagerly shook his hand, spitting, drooling and speaking gibberish, with a big stupid grin, completely awestruck".-(Rod))  Chip was signing autographs for a long line of eager fans.  The coolest part is that Chip is a real down-to-earth nice guy.  He's also a car guy.  Yowza.

  Matt's car was right behind some remarkable work in "The Wagonator".  There were many really nice cars with work by some local shops.  The entire Arc Audio staff was there, representing the nicest gear at the show-all of the ARC stuff is top notch.  Matt proudly uses two Arc Audio Robert Zeff Signature Edition with silly amounts of super clean power driving Hertz Mille component speakers in his front doors, Hertz coaxials in the rear doors and a pair of "monstrous yet articulate" Arc Audio Flatline 12" subwoofers.  The best part about these subs is not the 1000 continuous power handling and 2000 watt peak numbers, it's the fact that even at a few hundred watts each they produce plenty of clean, linear, smooth quality bass with plenty of quantity when desired.  1500 honest watts of total system power helps.  The capacitor and wiring is high end Audison stuff, all really high quality cabling, interconnects, etc.  Matt has near-future plans for a Kenwood hidden brain with USB, navigation, Ipod audio/video interface, satellite radio, DVD, all through custom mounted 7" Kenwood touchscreen.  The current Audio Control EQ will be used to process audio from the factory headunit, eq it, and treat the factory headunit like a CD changer, feeding audio to the Kenwood Excelon audio/video headunit processor.

This is the sticker Matt is sporting for Paul Dbecker's shop, dbtuned.  Check him out at www.dbtuned.com .  Paul helped Matt with some upgrades including a Cobb up-pipe, down-pipe, Cobb Accessport, and Borla Exhaust. Matt installed the Cusco anti-sway bars, and a dealer installed his STI short shifter and promptly scratched his driver door panel. ouch!  Check out Paul, he helped us with work on Matt's car right before the show. 

www.dbtuned.com, check it for Subaru performance upgrades!

'Yet one more shot of Matt's trunk.  The hidden blue LED bar lights things up really nicely, especially in the dark!

'good work Matt, your workmanship was among the best at this entire show. 

And you get to listen to this sweet system in your daily driver-giddyup.

A big, hearty thank you to ARC Audio for helping us equip the car with nice gear.  Thank you Brian Baker for driving a set of Hertz Mille speakers despite your car breaking down and overheating 'just in time to get the car done for the show.   whew!  (You kept driving and adding water.   'May your coolant reservoir never again run dry.)  Thankyou to S&S Autobody and Tony Camara who helped out.  We always feel supported at a show where we see our friend Mike Gray who has some cars that he's built on display.  Mike runs a shop called Advanced Restorations in Sacramento, he rebuilt the Monkeemobile, which was also at this show.  We were able to visit legendary George Barris again and admire the Monkeemobile.  We ran into Colby from Muffler Tech-he's a cool cat.  Man, what a show, lots of cars, nice people, Chip Foose, the ARC crew, George Barris...