A couple of months ago a customer came to us looking to make some changes to his 2004 Porsche 911 Carerra 4s Cabrio. This car is the real deal. Beautiful, fast, and better yet, a convertible. The car was just about perfect. Just about. The customer explained to us that the factory installed Porsche Navigation system was cumbersome to use, plus it lacked Bluetooth and iPod controls. He also loves music and said the sound system was not up to par. Plus, he was interested in a custom installed radar detector for the car. His major concern was that he wanted to keep the integrity of the car. It needed to look like Porsche did this when completed. We love these kinds of challenges. So the first thing we did was upgrade the factory navigation system with a Pioneer AVIC-Z120BT. This unit gave him voice control over approximately 75% of the unit. Now he can keep one hand on the steering wheel, one hand on the shifter, and tell his stereo what he wants it to do. We gave him Bluetooth and iPod/iPhone control as well. One major snag on this car. Nobody makes a good installation kit for the Pioneer navigation unit. No problem. We had one custom made out of billet aluminum. We then dyed it to match the color and texture of the factory dash. No loose plastic trim plates on this car. Next we moved on to speakers. We installed a set of German Maestro Epic series 6.5″ component speakers in the front factory locations. Huge improvement in sound quality from the stock Bose speakers. Plus these speakers are hand assembled in Germany, just like the car. By utilizing the factory Porsche grilles the speakers look completely stock to any onlooker. So now we have given him a modern Navigation system with all the features he was looking for. We have upgraded the speakers for better sound. But something was still missing. Bass. When we first listened to this car you could not hear a kickdrum or a top string on a bass guitar. It just lacked any semblance of low end bass. So we made him a custom fiberglass enclosure to hold a JL Audio 8w1 subwoofer in the passenger footwell. We tucked it far back and high up in the well so it had very little loss of leg room. We also designed it so a person could put their feet on it and not damage anything. We trimmed it out in a carpet that blended very well. Now we have sound quality and low end, but we have no volume. Next on the agenda was installing a JL Audio XD400/4 amplifier. It gives the Maestro speakers 75 watts per channel and 200 watts to the JL sub. This vehicle has very little useable space and we wanted to keep as much as possible so we put the amplifier in the same spot where the factory cd changer was located. One of the reasons we chose this amplifier was based on it’s small size. It looked great there. So now he can drive up the road with the top down and volume is never an issue any more. Plus it sounds like a concert hall on wheels. When we were looking at the car before the project started I noticed that you could not see very much out the rear window. He agreed. I explained that we could install a backup camera that would integrate with the new navigation system. I also explained that we had a new camera that was extremely small, to the tune of 1″ square. He liked the idea and when it was done you had to look hard just to locate it. Lastly, we installed an Escort Qi45 custom installed radar detector with the optional laser shifter pack. We hid all the components and put the display behind a closable panel to give the car a completely stock look. All in all, this turned out great. We were able to take one of Germany’s best vehicles and give it the WSS treatment of improved sound and cutting edge electronics.
