At the end of the recent Consumer Electronics Show, a Pagan Gold GM Pontiac Trans Am bathed in artificial white light stole my attention away from the many distractions and noises of the show. Beautifully poised on a metallic floor was what appeared to be Focal Audio's example of its finest work. I immediately noticed the sharp attention to detail: 19-inch 542-Forged 3-piece HRE wheels wrapped with Pirelli-P-Zero rubber tucked perfectly under the flawless wheel wells; the 13-inch, 4-piston caliper Brembo brake setup; chassis stability via a Hochkis upper strut bar; anti-sway bars; trailing arms; pan-hard rod, and springs; and Bilstein for high performance shocks.
The reflections of numerous flashes from photographers seemed to harmlessly bounce off the GM superbeast as I took a peek at the interior. I was met by purpose-fit 3-inch, 5-point RCI race harnesses tucked symmetrically into the upright deep bucket Sparco REV race seats. At that point I thought, oh great, another show car with seats and harnesses, this car can't be that fast. There was only one way to check, look under the hood! I walked around the front to discover this Trans Am is supercharged via a huge chrome Vortech Engineering unit. The informational plaque stated that it has a fully ported and polished head, SS Racing Engine Valves, valve springs, retainers, push rods and cams all by Competition Cams; pistons by Ross; rods by Callies; clutch and flywheel by Centerforce; a huge Flowmaster dual exhaust; Rytek ExZt 2b exhaust tips; a Rytek catch can; and a K & N air filter to take care of cool incoming air. Okay, that justified the race seats and harnesses, but why was this 10-second show car sitting in an audio booth? I investigated on the spot and bumped into the mastermind of the project. Dindo Cajulis met me with a smile, a handshake, and gave me a brief overview of the car. I wanted more in-depth info on the audio setup.
Dindo opened up the doors so I could get a closer look at what was going on. Just behind each race seat, sitting on a beautifully molded Element enclosure, is a Focal Utopia 12-inch 33WX subwoofer. Powering these Focal flagships is a set of Dimension amps rated at 200w/mono (20 -70 Hz) resonant @ 50 Hz. On the midrange line-up we have a set of Audiom 6W 6.5-inch speakers powered by a 75/ch - (70 - 3500 Hz) amp by Dimension, and T51 Utopia line tweeters on demand backed by another Dimension amp. Controlling all of these components is an Eclipse 5506 CD unit.
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