When Houl Ly purchased his '97 BMW M3, he knew he wanted something a little different to set it apart from the pack. A few mild body mods would help, but most of the attention was focused on the audio system. This was Ly's first experience with high-performance car audio and he didn't want to go wrong. That decision brought Ly to Russell Balazs, a 13-year industry veteran, and Octave, his Orlando, FL-based shop that transformed this mild M3 into a stealth audiophile machine.
First Impressions
The BMW was treated to a carbon-fiber hood covering the stock in-line six-cylinder that was fitted with a carbon-fiber cold-air intake. The suspension was modified with a pair of Sachs front shocks, while a pair of Bilstein dampers outfit the rear half of the M3. The stock wheels were tossed for a set of 18" Breyton hoops. Rounding out the exterior mods is the HID conversion with angel-eye headlights.
Inner Beauty
The sound system starts out with a JVC KD-AVX2 in-dash monitor head unit that supplies the signal to the pair of Memphis 16-MCA2004 amps. In the front, a pair of Memphis 15-MSQ6s mounted in custom door pods reproduces the audio. Built using MDF and fiberglass-reinforced body filler, the tweeter pods were then wrapped with black suede. The factory door pockets were filled in and fleece fabric was stretched over the door panel and the MDF mounting ring for the woofer. It was then glassed over using polyester resin. The crossover display was formed in a similar fashion and the entire assembly was fiberglassed, smoothed out with body filler and covered in factory-matching vinyl. The result is a stock-looking door panel that is anything but. The rear speakers, Memphis 15-MSYNC5's, were mounted in the OEM enclosures with the help of an ABS ring on the inside of the enclosure. The rear assembly was then reinstalled in the factory location.
Spare A Sub
For bottom end, Balazs designed a 1.3ft sealed enclosure for the single Memphis 15-MS124D 12" sub. A sealed box was chosen for its response characteristics, making for clean output. The enclosure was designed to fit in the spare tire well and built from MDF and fiberglass. One issue that came up with the build was the BMW emission control module, which mounts under the spare tire. This unit cannot be moved, so the enclosure had to be built around it.
The face of the subwoofer enclosure was also designed to serve as the amprack. Both of the 16-MCA2004 amps are mounted at opposing angles on either side of the woofer. The amp/sub mount was built using MDF to form a skeleton frame over which fleece was stretched and fiberglassed. The panel was smoothed with body filler and an Octave logo was molded in before A-Class Paint and Autobody of Orlando, FL, painted the amprack. The rack panel covers all of the Tsunami wiring.
Form And Function
A flat floor panel was built from MDF and covered in black vinyl to trim out the amprack in the trunk floor. Not only does this create a nice visual contrast with the black trunk and the white amp/sub mount, but it also retains a little function for hauling some light cargo in the trunk. When cruising down the road, Ly keeps the black cloth grille in place to keep the paint nice and defect-free for showing.
With all of the custom fiberglass and body filler work, it may come as a surprise that the entire installation took place in a garage, not a shop bay. Until recently, Balazs operated Octave out of his home garage. Octave is now a full-blown operation complete with a fully equipped bay to provide his customers with top-quality installations. Balazs expresses his deepest thanks to Jeff Falk at Memphis Audio and Sean Rombach at Metra for their assistance with all the products used in the build. All of the Memphis gear and custom work has made this M3 a much more enjoyable ride. With frequent trips to Florida Keys, Louisiana and Texas, Ly makes the most of his trips listening to a wide range of music genres as well as movies in the dash.