2000 Audi TT Quattro

Although it's been on the scene for more than a half decade, the Audi TT, now coming to the end of its first generation production run, remains distinctive with its Bauhaus-inspired design. While loosely based on the last generation VW Golf, it is a much more upscale package, due partly to the clever use of aluminum trim throughout the interior.

In his orange metallic 2000 Audi TT quattro, Edsel Labao, a well-known fixture in the Southern California tuner car scene, planned right from the start to incorporate this motif in the design and execution of the ultra-performance McIntosh/Boston Acoustics ICE system. "When I got my Audi TT a few years back," relates Labao, "I knew that I wanted to do something really different, especially as far as the audio system was concerned. One of the distinctive features on the Audi TT is the liberal use of aluminum trim, especially in the interior, and I knew that [I] wanted to carry this theme into the installation of my system."

To help plan the system, Labao turned to Sandy Lirag of Boston Acoustics. "He's built a number of their show cars and he was [a] tremendous help to me in planning the system for my Audi," Labao states. They decided to build the vehicle as if they were Audi designing the ultimate show car. Given the TT's "astonishing use of aluminum accents ... from the fuel cap all the way through to the interior trim pieces," Labao and Lirag wanted to keep the theme. "Trying to find a guy that can work on metal and knows car audio is like trying to walk into your local welding shop then asking them to build you a wooden cabinet," explains Labao. The man they found to pull it off was Femi Adegoke, a one-time contributor to Car Audio. "While Sandy helped me design the system," Labao says, "it was Femi Adegoke who executed the plan, for the amplifier rack especially, to perfection."

Adegoke started with the floor, employing 1/4"-thick sheet aluminum as his foundation. Labao then turned to the expertise of Joe Weitz and Geoff Curtis at J&G Customs in Fountain Valley, CA, who fabricated a fiberglass mold for the spare tire well. (Weitz and Curtis are no strangers to the pages of CA&E. Their Pontiac GTO system installed in last year's Boston Acoustics show car was featured in the August 2005 issue.) Later in the installation, the fiberglass elements would be combined with the aluminum floor to create the enclosure for the two 10" Boston G5 subwoofers, providing the system with a "kick in the gut" foundation. The subs' inverted baskets perfectly complement the overall theme of the components installed below the rear hatch.

But that's not all. Adegoke fabricated custom subwoofer accents following the same theme employed by Audi for the dashboard jewelry, particularly the A/C vent trim rings. Working from sheet stock, Adegoke milled these one-of-a-kind trim pieces that give the subwoofers a rugged and classy look at the same time. Using the same fabrication technique, Adegoke fabricated aluminum brackets for mounting two Boston Acoustics GT-28 amplifiers. Really setting off the amplifier installation, Adegoke insulated the amplifier and speaker wires, using the appropriate brake- line connectors to the floor. Overall, these touches take what would have been an ordinary installation and elevate it to a work of the installer's art.

After the completion of the aluminum and fiberglass work, Weitz and Curtis installed the McIntosh MX4000 head unit. For maximum system purity, they needed to install a fiber-optic cable to the outboard McIntosh MDA4000 digital/analog converter. The next link in the signal chain is the massively flexible Audio Control DQX audio processor, which splits the signal to two Boston Acoustics GT-28 amplifiers. Monster Cable M1001 cables complete the connections to their respective speakers. These include a set of Boston Acoustics Pro60's in each door with Boston Acoustics NEO Type-M tweeters in the A-pillars (which improves system imaging by a measurable margin), and Boston G5 subwoofers in the rear compartment.

One final change came just before completion. While Weitz and Curtis had the doors apart, the decision was made to trick out the speakers with the same kind of aluminum trim the subwoofers sport. There was only one minor problem: Since Adegoke lived two hours away, it wasn't really practical for him to add this final touch. Weitz and Curtis got around this issue by making the trim pieces themselves. "But since they [did] not have a CNC mill available at that time," relates Labao, "they fabricated by hand the necessary aluminum trim using a handheld router. Talk about precision and determination."