Well, I ended up with 10th place in my class.. 13 or 14 cars total.
I knew when I was going in that I wasn't goign to win, but my only goal was to make it up on stage.
I walked away with a nice little plaque that says "10th place, IASCA World Finals"

that bigass silver trophy woulda been nice, but that's okay.. there's always later when I have more money and time.

Had I had more time to tune the car and get it ready after finishing my door pods, I would have done much better. I got a 42 out of 60 on my sound quality, which really isn't bad for using brand new speakers that haven't had a week to break-in.

I hit my new high SPL of 133.2dB with an RTA score of 16 (out of 20).. My last show I scored 130.7dB and 17 on RTA, so I can't complain about that end of things. The only stuff that I really lacked on was attention to detail and some minor install things that had I had an extra day or two to prepare, I could have done much better. maybe 3rd or 4th.

Of the other 2 guys that I usually competed against in my area, one got 3rd place, and the other didn't even make the top 10. Obviously he wasn't happy, but it was all fair. We all played by the rules.


<B>thanks again to Bill (slickismax), Kaleb, BeigeMaxima, and John for helping out this weekend.. I wouldn't have been near ready to compete</b>

I may not have won, but 10th in the world isn't bad at all!

 

Congrats on the job well done. I know you make boxes for people, any chance you do custom kick panels for a 4th gen?

Del

 

Let me know how it turns out making sealed boxes for the doors... I'd still like to do the same myself.....

 

curious..

all i know is IDQ's ?? :>

 

Kickpanels for a 4th gen? I'd have to have the car for about 2 months to have the time to do it! (and they wouldn't be cheap!)..

I dunno if Q Forms makes any for your car, but they'd be the way to go if they did. Having kicks custom made by a shop will run you $700-1200 + speakers + tuning...
If I had the car for enough time to work on them during weekends, I'd make them for $3-400/pair + parts.

(It took about $50 in fiberglass and $40 in vinyl to do my door pods). it won't take that much for kick panels, but there will still be decent parts costs, AND permanent modifications required on the car. you'll probably have to cut a small hole in the floorboard, but I dunno.
I've seen some cars that needed it, others that didn't.

_______________________________
The sealed enclosures for the doors didn't come out as well as I'd liked, but that's simply a fine-tuning issue. I didn't form them quite well enough, and they rub on the door frame when I shut the door. it's fixable, but jsut a pain in the ****.. Once I get this set "perfected", I can make a mold casting of it and then I'll be able to make a set that fits well fairly quickly. My original molds for this set were destroyed. I'll have to make the next ones out of fiberglass or a non=breakable material. Plaster of Paris doesn't last too long being kicked around the garage!

As for sound, it's MUCH better than the open doors. I now run my mids from 63-3150hz and subs from 63 down for "daily driving".. For SQ competition, the subs are turned waaaaaay down and I run my mids full-range. I couldn't do that in my other door pods without them distorting at decent volumes. Now I can run these at FULL volume (over 3x their RMS rated power) into 40hz and up with no probs.
Pretty decent improvement in jsut the numbers.

Midbass is awesome.. I had one guy ask if I had 8s under the carpet in the floorboard.. when I told him I didn't, he actually crawled under my car to look for the boxes that would have to be welded on to do it!

_______________


My entire system setup is listed in more detail on my webpage..
here's the parts rundown:
Head unit: Pioneer Premier DEX-P1R
Crossover/ EQ are built into head unit
Speakers: Focal 165KS 6.5" component set sealed pods in doors, with tweeters inside mirror "sails"
three JL Audio 10W6 subs in the trunk.

Amps: Precision Power A600.2 (600W mono on subs)
PPI A200.2 (50W/channel into tweets)
PPI A404.2 (rated 50x4, but I'm running it 200W/channel into mids)

Total rated power: 600W
total "actual" power: 1100W+ RMS ;-)

 

Matt,

Thanks for the info...I have been quoted 400 bucks locally, and all they wanted was the existing kick panels from the car... but I am sure yours would be nicer, But I can't send you the car for 2 months, not happening... Again congrats on your finish in IASCA. That is very cool. How many Max's were competing?

Del

 

The main prob is room down there for kick pods. The just doesn't seem to be any. And I personally don't want to spend a fortune on high end speakers, and ex$pensive kick panels just to kick the mess out of them while getting in and out or shifting.

 

Usually when they only ask for the stock kick panels, they're just going to build a free-air cover panel for them, they don't build a sealed enclosure..
That's why the price difference is there. The ones I build and got quotes in this area all are sealed enclosures that you'll have to either mold into the car or cut part of the sheetmetal in the car to make fit.
I'm not knocking the shops you got quotes on- I'm sure they do good work if you pay that much for them (at least they'd better!), but a properly sealed and tuned enclosure sounds MUCH better than a thin layer of shaped fiberglass with a hole in it for a speaker. bass/midbass in those types of enclosures aren't much better than what you have in your doors already.

In order to create enough room down there to build a sealed enclosure, you'd almost got to cut the metal or find a hole large enough to attach another volume of air. (I've seen people remove fenders and attach stuff behind the kick panel with just a 2 or 3" hole connecting them. keeps the interior sheetmetal from getting funked up and is easily hidden.

Maybe that'll give you guys some ideas..
If I can find some 8" subs for a good price, I'm gonna sink a pair into my kicks sometime in the spring.

 

heheh well, I wasn't exactly asking for the car for that long.. I know no one with any brains would do that.. I'm jsut REALLY busy with school, work, and family right now, and the only time I have to work on stereo stuff is a couple hours each weekend.

Maybe I'll get around to making a set this summer sometime, then I'll be able to just make a dozen and throw them in the garage until they sell.

Uhhhh, I saw one other Max there.. it was a 2k SE from Texas- probably Russ's old car!

 

I've been thinking about kickpanels for the fourth gen, too, but there's just not enough room down there, especially with keeping the dead pedal. Instead, I was thinking of leaving the mid-ranges in the doors and just doing mini-kickpanels to get the tweeters lower. Nissan putting separates in the doors was a nice touch, but the tweeters are just too high and pull the stage way over to the side.

My friend has a Pontiac Sunfire, and about the only thing I like about the car is the way the speakers are done: separates in the doors, but the tweeters are low and angled up and back in nice little pods. Suppose I could do the same...

 

Congratz Matt!!!

 

congrats matt. i'll see u next year.

 

I thought about them as well as electrostatics, but with my height, I don't have the legroom for the horns or the 12" vertical the electrostatics would take. make sure to take pics man!!!!

 

right under the glove box on the passenger side and under the steering column on the drivers side. it'll be hidden. i'm gonan put grill fabrica round them. i'm 5'5" so i got plento o' room. and i sit like i'm 7'2" and hahahaha once again automatics rule. so we get to have kick panels

 

Dude, if you got some wood blocks to put on your pedals, you could stick some subs in your kick panels, too!

 

hahaha. the kick panels are going to house 8in midbass. but thasa good idea.. but then i won't be able to see over the dash..

 

Two words: phone book


(I spent waaaay too much time on here tonight- time to sign off.)

 

Why don't you just do like Team Festiva....

Completely remove the front seats, extend the steering column and pedals to be reachable from the back, then put everything in the front- subs and all!

 

That sounds really familiar- I remember seeing some compact car with no front seats and a really long steering column some years back...

 

i was thinking about trying to compete too...anyone know when there is a soundoff near new york city? or anywhere close to new york?

 

Woah! Kinda like Arnold did to that poor MG(?) in Commando?

 

http://www.iasca.com should have the event schedules. I think there's also a more casual series of sound-offs that might be run by somebody else (Tweeter, maybe?).