And that’s exactly what Thompson did. The 37-year-old facilities manager for a national bookstore chain and resident of Bayshore, Long Island took his installer’s plea to heart and promptly sold his Volvo, bought a “gently used” 1994 Lexus GS 300, and then paraded his replacement ride directly to Bode the same day he drove it off the lot. “That changed my whole attitude,” Bode admits. “I remember thinking, ‘I can do all sorts of things now.’” Time wasn’t of the essence, however, as Bode started work on the Lexus system in December 1998 and Thompson picked it up about a year later. (In the interim, he drove his “plain Jane” 1986 Nissan 200-SX—with no radio.) “I didn’t want him to rush the install,” clarifies Thompson. “I wanted it to be perfect.”

No -Change Changers
An Alpine CVA-1005 Mobile Multimedia Station head unit resides in the Lexus’ dash where the double-DIN factory radio used to be, with an Alpine DVA-5205 DVD player above it. The head unit features a motorized 6.5-inch video monitor that folds out to display various system functions as well as video and route-guidance information from an Alpine NVE-N75 1A navigation system. A trim plate fashioned from medium-density fiberboard (MDF) and finished with black paint borders the two units. Thompson loves country music, so the more CDs he has on hand, the better, so the Lexus is stocked with two Alpine CD changers. One, the six-disc CHA-S624, is installed in the glove box and trimmed by an MDF panel wrapped in gray vinyl. The other, the 12-disc CHA- 1214, is in the trunk.

Raising the center-console armrest reveals a plexiglas panel covering a pair of Dakota Digital gauges that monitor the voltage of the system battery and the temperature of the amplifiers in the trunk, fuse-status indicators for several components, and rocker switches that turn various system functions on and off. “If any piece of equipment isn’t working properly, that display tells me about it,” Thompson affirms. All of this is secured on an MDF panel that covers the center-console storage compartment. A 6 1/2-inch midrange and 1-inch tweeter from an MB Quart QM 218.61 Q component set are mounted in the kickpanel on each side of the car. The stock carpet was cut away and MDF and fiberglass pods wrapped in vinyl were attached to the stock kickpanels. Grilles were formed from MDF and metal mesh wrapped in grille cloth and finished with aluminum rings on the backsides. The factory tweeters in the A pillars were swapped for a pair of Oz-19 1-inch tweeters, and the stock grilles conceal them. The factory door speakers were also removed. A keypad in the driver’s-side location, similar to those used in older car alarms, serves as a valet switch. The passenger’s-side stock-speaker provision now holds a Dakota Digital gauge to monitor the battery under the hood.

Equipment trays are sunk into the thick carpeting in the front floorboards, one on each side. “I didn’t know that carpet was that thick,” Thompson marvels. “No wonder the car is so quiet.” The trays were fabricated out of MDF and have removable Plexiglas tops trimmed with brushed aluminum and black paint. The inside of each tray was also painted black, and neon tubes highlight the inside. The right side holds the passive crossovers for the MB Quart speakers, while the left side holds a small tool kit. The original floor mats snap over the trays to hide them.

The Lexus’ trunk still boasts an impressive amount of space, but it came at the ex- pense of the spare tire and jack. The empty spare-tire well in the trunk floor was fitted with a rack made of MDF and plywood and finished in black Formica, with vinyl on top. In the top of the rack are two Phoenix Gold EQ232 equalizers behind clear Plexiglas. One EQ is used during sound-quality (SQ) judging at sound-off competitions, while the other is for the real-time analysis (RTA) and sound-pres- sure-level (SPL) evaluations. The SQ equalizer is connected to an “umbilical cord,” and it can be removed so that Thompson can tune the system from the front seat. A three-level rocker switch in the center console switches from one EQ setting to the other. The rack is fitted with hinges at the back and lifts by means of a linear actuator to reveal the Alpine naviga- tion system’s CD-ROM drive fitted inside the front lip. Thompson feels that the nay system gives peace of mind when travel- ing. Below the rack is the 12-disc Alpine CHA-1214 CD changer and aJVC KZ-V1O VCR trimmed with black trunk carpet. An MDF and Plexiglas pocket on the driver’s-side trunk wall holds a Stinger SB 1000 battery and two Stinger 1-farad capacitors. A 3-inch fan at the bottom of the pocket pushes potentially dangerous fumes out of the compartment via a facto- ry trunk vent. The inside was finished with mirrored Plexiglas and black paint. A matching pocket on the right side holds two Xtant amplifiers—a lOOldx and a 2200ix. The amps’ covers were removed to accommodate the tight mounting space. A smaller pocket next to the large driver’s-side pocket holds a Stinger fuse block with fusing for the EQs, a video monitor in the trunk lid, and the rear battery. Additional- ly, a Stinger power-distribution block for the amps is in a panel on the back wall of the trunk, along with a charging outlet that allows easy hook-up to an external power source at shows.
Bass Passage Three JL Audio 10W6 10-inch subwoofers are in a sealed enclosure situated under the rear deck. The box encompasses nearly 2 cubic feet of airspace, estimates Bode. The enclosure’s Plexiglas back allows a look inside the mirror-lined box and shows off the subs’ chromed baskets. The subs are mounted on a baffle that’s se- cured to the rear deck. The rear deck originally housed a factory 10-inch subwoofer, so Bode wasn’t starting from scratch in creating a passageway for the JL subs. First, the stock subwoofer was removed and the resulting hole in the metal deck was enlarged. “I’m not a big fan of cutting cars up,” Bode states. “But this was the only way to get bass in the car.” The grille in the center of the deck lid was also made larger. Fiberglass was used to re-contour the Lexus’ rear deck, and then it was re-upholstered in taupe vinyl. A new grille fashioned from pieces of the old one, plus some fiberglass, MDF, head- liner material, and interior-matching vinyl fits over the hole in the rear deck. “With the grille in place, it’s a very stock look,” Thompson believes. Mounted behind the rear seat and out of view is an Alpine PXA-H5 10 digital signal processor. Covers for all of the gear in the trunk were fashioned from MDF, black Formica, and vinyl. All of the compart- ments also sport white neon tubes inside. The rest of the trunk was finished in MDF trim panels wrapped in vinyl. An Accele LCDP5C 5.4-inch LCD moni- tor was attached to the underside of the trunk lid and bordered by an MDF trim panel wrapped in taupe vinyl. The panel also houses audio-system and video-sys- tem diagrams behind Plexiglas. Below the monitor are switches that lower and raise the EQ rack and turn both the trunk-lid monitor and the trunk neon on and off. Just Like Starting Over A Stinger SB 1000 battery replaced the stock one under the hood. It’s covered by a clear-Plexiglas panel that was painted black except for one section that shows the battery’s logo. The battery’s Stinger terminals are on top of the Plexi panel. No other electrical or performance up- grades were undertaken in the car’s engine compartment, but that certainly didn’t stop Thompson from jazzing up the Lexus’ exterior. Eibach springs lower his ride an inch and a half, and low-profile Nitto Ex- treme NT-555 225/40ZR18 18-inch tires are mounted on Niche Pultec polished- aluminum rims. A GReddv cat-back ex- haust gives the Lexus some growl, and an Erebuni body kit lends the vehicle a ground-hugging look. A Micro Electronics alarm protects the Lexus and its system. Thompson hit the sound-off competition circuit strong in 2000, and he incorporated a few upgrades—like the DVD player—to get ready for the 2001 season. (So far, so good—Thompson nabbed a fourth-place trophy in the Amateur 301- 600-watt Ultimate class at the Spring Break Nationals in Daytona Beach, Florida back in late March.) But he’s careful not to try Bode’s “patience” with any major mods to the Lexus system. If Thompson has any significant changes up his sleeves, insists Bode, he’ll again have to shell out the dough for a new car. “I told Ron he could do the install himself— unless he gets a different car,” he jokes. That’s one upgrade path Thompson isn’t ready for... yet.

The audio signal for Ron Thompson s 1994 Lexus GS 300 begins depending on which source is selected at either the Alpine CVA 1005 multimedia station the Alpine CHA 5624 changer, or the Alpine CHA-1214 changer. From there, it travels to the Alpine PXA-H510 digital signal processor and two Phoenix Gold EQ232 equalizers The signal then passes to two Xtant amplifiers, a lOOldx (250 watts x 1 into 4 ohms) and a 2200ix (100 watts x 2 into 4 ohms) The lOOldx amp s built in crossover a plug in module handles signal routing duties for the three JL Audio 10W6 10 inch subwoofers that its host amp powers they get frequencies of 70 Hz and down The three 6 ohm dual voice coil JL subs are wired in parallel to the mono amplifier to create a 4 ohm load this way they each receive 300 watts The Xtant 2200ix drives 61/2 inch midranges and 1 inch tweeters from an MB Quart GM 218 61 Q component set in the kickpanels as well as Oz OZ 19 1-inch tweeters in the A pillars. The amp’s built in crossover limits the signal going to these speakers at 70 Hz and up Then the signal runs through the passive crossovers supplied with the Quart speakers which send 2 600 Hz and up to the tweeters and 2 600 and down to the mids Installer William Bode put a 6 dB per octave capacitor in line with the Oz OZ 19 tweeters that limits the signal going to them at 8 000 Hz and up One channel of the Xtant 2200ix powers the three speak ers on the left side of the Lexus and the other channel powers the right side, and each speaker gets 100 watts. Video signals from the Alpine DVA 5205 DVD player and the JVC KZ V10 VCR are routed to the Alpine CVA-1 005. It sends audio and video data to its own monitor and the Accele LCDP5C 5 4 inch monitor in the trunk lid Stinger wire was used throughout the system.