Installed by: Matt Schaeffer at Safe & Sound Mobile Electronics in Manassas, VA
Owned by: Jim Coates
Products used: (2) 21WX Subs, (1) Utopia Be No 6 Kit, (1) 165 KRC, (1) FPS 4160 Amplifier, (1) FPS 2160 Amplifier, (1) FPS 1500 Amplifier, (5) Focal HiCaps, BAM XXL
Links: Check out more from Matt and Safe & Sound on his Instagram or their Facebook!
Notes:
“This installation was a massive undertaking. It was way more than just an audio build. The majority of the design was to emulate the vehicle itself. The car only had carbon fiber on the hood insert from when I started.
In the trunk. The full design revolved around the car’s steering wheel. If you look at it, it is a scaled up version of it to fit the trunk. The trunk houses (2) 21WX Focal Utopia subwoofers that sit straight back. The subwoofer baffle consists of a matching Black Alcantara suede panel with horizontal routered “v” grooves that run along the panel. There are (2) 60 degree chamfered rings wrapped in a black matching OEM vinyl to cover up the subwoofer mounting hardware. In front of the subwoofer baffle, I have a 3D panel to emulate the vehicles steering wheel. In the center it was a black vinyled panel with a carbon fiber chevy logo insert, back lit with led’s out of acrylic. There are (2) carbon fiber boomerangs that snap into place that were hand laid in 20 oz carbon fiber. There are led lights recessed behind these panels to illuminate the subwoofer baffle. Under the Chevy logo sits a Mosconi 6to8 DSP in its own panel painted silver. There is a matching grill material in from of the 6to8 to emulate the material on the steering wheel. To the left of the trunk sits the passive crossover for the NO. 6 Utopia front components. It sits in a black suede alcantara panel that was designed so you can still see the setting on top of the crossover. Sitting over each suede panel on both sides is a stacked 3D panel wrapped in black OEM matching vinyl. I made these pieces to look like heat sinks from an amplifier. On the rear panel (trunk latch panel), I redesigned it to house a custom made LED light to illuminate the trunk and carbon fiber, you it shows well at night. On the floor I have a removable panel that has “Camaro” embossed into it. It has a red stitch line to emulate the interior stitching design. The sides of the floor are trimmed in a 3d design wrapped in an OEM black vinyl. Under the removable panel sits the vehicles battery, battery charger, 10 farad capacitor and all system fuses.
The trunk lid was 2 part foamed to house a custom carbon fiber laid panel that has an OEM ZL1 logo completely flushed into the epoxy.
If you flip down the rear seats, you can see the rear of the subwoofer enclosure. You can see the magnets of the beautiful 21wx subwoofers lit up with red LEDs. The rear of the enclosure is trimmed off with more panels to accentuate the lines of the car. In the center you can see a panel with a ZL1 logo wrapped in alcantara black suede with router lines running through to match the subwoofer baffle. There is a single white led to illuminate the ZL1 logo when the system is on. On the floor sits (3) Focal Symmetric Amplifiers. FPS4160, FPS1500, FPS2160. With 5 Focal HiCaps that are flush mounted into a suede alcantara panel. Holding the 2 piece alcantara panel together is a long connector panel wrapped in black OEM vinyl with (3) of the stainless allen screws that come with the Utopia subwoofers. The amplifiers and inside of the subwoofer enclosure illuminate when the trunk is open, and turn off when it is closed. The single white LED illuminates the center ZL1 logo when the system is active.
In the rear deck is a set of 165KRC’s mounted into a custom made HDPE speaker plate.
The front doors are completely deadened in Focal BAMXXL material. In the lower door panel sit the woofers to the Utopia NO.6 set. They sit in a custom acrylic speaker adapter made to countersink the speaker. On the cosmetic side of the door panel, I wrapped the entire insert (painted gloss black from the factory) in black alcantara suede to bring it into the doors. I also hand made a 20 oz carbon fiber accent to flow into the panels onto the dash. I added the focal emblem to the door panel grille to give it the final touch.
On the dashboard, I removed all the OEM black painted inserts and hand wrapped each one with a 20oz carbon fiber. I then disassembled the steering wheel and wrapped the (2) silver painted boomerangs and changed them to 20 oz carbon fiber to emulate my subwoofer enclosure. The tweeters are recessed deep into the a-pillars and wrapped in black suede alcantara.
For the radio, I went with an iPad mini. I made the dash kit using a SoundMan slider kit, schosche kit, 2 part foam and 20oz carbon fiber as the base. I laid down a ZL1 logo on the top of the kit and painted the kit silver to match the OEM dash vents and cluster. I removed the logo and clear coated the dash kit to revel ZL1 in carbon fiber. The HVAC controlls are located behind the ipad. On the ipad we have the ability to see all the OEM PID’S for gauges and everything in real time. We also have the ability to control OEM features like lock, unlock, windows, and HVAC. The steering wheel controls work with the iPad using a NavTV SteerBlue module.
In the center console, I molded in the Mosconi 6to8 DSP controller where the OEM Gauge pod was. That panel was turned into a black alcantara suede insert and flushed into the center console panel. The panel was then painted gloss silver to match the radio, vents and cluster.
The entire interior was deadened with Focal BAMXXL material. This is a 1,000 HP Camaro, so the need for a quiet atmosphere was imperative.
Other features of the interior include a DVR system with front and rear camera’s to be mainly used for the drag strip recording. There is also a K40 RL360i radar/laser system.
Under the hood sits a fully built 980HP engine with a Magnuson supercharger. The rear valence, side skirts, front valence, spoiler were all molded in 20oz carbon fiber to match the rest of the cars accents.
In the end, this was a massive undertaking. To achieve a great sound field in a drag car seemed like a challenge. But with the BAMXXL and choice of equipment, I far exceeded that expectation. With the attention to detail of OEM design throughout my build, I feel like this build will be special for a long time.”
-Matt Schaeffer, Safe & Sound Mobile Electronics, Manassas VA
