Interior

Under the hood the factory battery was replaced with a Tsunami 1000cc yellow top because of the increased demand in current from the audio system. A custom metal bracket had to be made to secure the yellow top since it is different in size from the OEM battery. All of the wiring was upgraded to a Tsunami 1/0 power cable from the battery to the back. A 150 amp fuse was installed on an aluminum bracket to protect the car from any fires from a short circuit in the system.

InteriorThe heart of the system is Alpine's IVA-C800 multimedia station. It was double stacked with an Alpine DVA-5205 DVD player with a polished aluminum trim. All the illumination of the audio components was changed to blue to match the factory gauges. Patel had a friend, Rinaldo Swayne, do the work (it took about 50 LED's to accomplish the task). The factory steering wheel controls were modified so Leeper could interface them with the Alpine deck's volume and track controls. When the transmission is in TipTronic mode you can also shift up and down with the steering controls. An Alpine PXA-H510 was used to give the system 11 bands of parametric equalization, Dolby Digital processing and time correction. The PXA-H510 display unit was installed in the overhead panel so it was visible and accessible from the front seats.

Rear Seat EntertainmentA pair of Accele Electronics LCD7R 7-inch widescreen monitors was installed in the head rests with a polished aluminum trim ring, which matches the interior trim. (One of the cool things about the VW headrest was that the two rods that hold them are hollow, so Leeper was able to route the wire out of sight.) A TVTNR4 TV Tuner from Accele was added for variety in rear seat entertainment. The TV tuner antennas are tucked away under the headliner so you cannot see them. The system was designed so that passengers in the back could listen to and watch something independent of any a/v signal being sent up front. To that end, a pair of wireless Accele Electronic headphones were also installed.

Interior SpeakersThe front stage is made up of a powerful set of Boston Acoustics Pro 6.53 3-way component systems. Custom kick panels were fabricated out of fiberglass to house a set of the Pro 4.5 mids and Neo5t tweeters. The finish consists of a textured black and polished aluminum rings to match the interior. To make the polished aluminum rings and speaker grills Steve Yiu from Sound Experience in Arizona was called in. A set of Pro 6.5 midbass drivers were mounted in the front doors with a thick MDF spacer and the speaker was mounted with T-nuts so they could be serviced easily. A layer of Tsunmai sound deadening material was used on the doors to prevent rattles and to improve midbass response. Leeper improved the soundstage and imaging with a pair of Neo3r Ambient tweeters, installed in the factory door locations. In the rear doors you'll find a set of Pro 6.5 2 way component speakers. The tweeter was mounted on the mid using the patented Boston Acoustics tweeter Axis mount and that also helped the front stage.

TrunkLeeper's idea for the trunk was to mount everything in a balanced way between the left and right side of the car; this way the spare tire would still be accessible. A custom rack was welded together out of metal bars and secured to the rear deck. It houses the following equipment: an Alpine NVE-851A DVD navigation system, Alpine's MHA-S670 6-disc MD changer which was custom ordered from Japan, an Alpine CHA-S624 6-disc CD changer, and the custom made fuse block for the system. The rack was covered with a panel that was custom molded and color matched with the exterior of the vehicle with an accent of polished aluminum trim. Custom blue neon was mounted to illuminate the trunk.