JVC Mobile News & Reviews

JVC's first Maxed-out show car hits the scene with a full show season booked for 2004.

Phah! Show cars? Anyone could knock one up. I could whip one up in my shed!
It was an off the cuff boast to Carl Hynes, JVC Mobile Entertainment's marketing man, mind you, I might have had a couple of beers when those brave words were uttered.

It was only a few weeks later, with fear and trepidation that it began to dawn on me… The enormity of accepting the job of building a full-on audio demo car. Me and some foolhardy mates – 'DG', Colin 'the knobster' Norris and Roly 'basshead' Knight - were looking at my Corsa Turbo wondering what had to be done to make it a sure winner for JVC at the Max Power London Show in November. None of us have ever been full time professional installers.
The car had been up for sale, the only way of preserving the few meagre points left on my licence! Carl had already known this and his plan of keeping us out of the pool hall and the local curry house was coming together. He had even come up with a ridiculous name for the project; we were Team Sizzler!
There was a lot of work to do, mainly because the 200+bhp 6sp monster had been built to look harmless, right down to the 1.2 badge on the spoiler-less boot lid. Known in the trade as a heartbreaker and ironically, the exact opposite to most aspiring Max Power cars. Anyway, we had 84 days to turn it into a show-stopper.
Because time was short, the car was divided roughly into three separate jobs. The dash by yours truly, the awesome door builds by Gary Wollen at In Car Systems (01252 838838) based in Frimley. And the bass box build in the back, plus a stack of other jobs - done by Knobby and Roly with wiring by Dave 'scratcher' Greening. The Combat body kit was supplied and installed by PSG and the whole lot was sprayed by Mark Lee (01353 775019). Mark kept up the image of amateur fun with his spray shop which is also a shed at the end of the garden.

Pink or brown?
Mark's two tone spray job (2 tone is currently a high fashion-statement) features Fiat Charcoal metallic lower half with Ferrari Prugna metallic red upper half. This red contains eight base colours including blue/black, organic maroon, transparent red and silver. In full sunlight it sometimes looks pink, indoor lighting can make it look anything from a plum colour to brown.
With so little time to do the job, we did the obvious thing and cheated! The dash, for example, used the surrounding edge of the original plastic. A margin of about 30mm was left to preserve the original fixings. This keeps the outer shape so it could be easily fitted and removed, including the main mounting studs into the bulkhead. The heater and other stuff not needed for a pure show car was chucked out to give plenty of room for the head units and an MDF framework for the speakers, screens and head units was constructed.
Next, the time-tested method was used of stretching grille cloth over the whole lot to achieve a shape and then stippling with the styrene. Once it had cured, the dash was unbolted and reinforced with glass fibre matting on the inside. When it was being smoothed with filler on the outside and rubbed down, it fell off the bench a few times. The only damage was to the floor, so it was deemed to be quite strong. The steering column by the way, was formed from a polythene nappy wash bottle.
Gary Wollen's door job was constructed in a similar way to the dash using the original trim edges as a framework to build on. Gary decided there would be too much weight carrying the full range speakers on the door moulding so the speakers, along with the subs were mounted in the doors and the grilles for the 6 inch and 6x9s were moulded into the door trim. The weight of the door with an amp and two subs was tested on the hinges by tying all the components onto the door to make sure the hinges would take it. So far, nothing has sagged but there are no thoughts of risking a scissor door hinge conversion… yet.
Knobby and Roly did the rear module with Knobby building the three humungous sealed bass boxes (nearly 5 cu ft each) and Roly doing lots of the panelling and fitting the mirrors. The mirrors tend to give the appearance of having 15 instead of nine subs in the back. The most impressive thing is that the subs light up blue in the middle in time with the bass beat.
One of the essential ingredients of a show car is that the crowds should know what they are looking at and be able to remember, and talk about it to their friends. Free material at the Max Show included foam rubber 'stress' toy models of the Corsa and thousands of full colour A4 flyers showing the car and details, plus details and images of all the JVC equipment.
The public's span of attention was also helped by using a computer which, apart from livening up the dash, also played the car's build up story. The presentation was repeated on a 15 inch screen in the otherwise blacked out side windows. Not only did this seem to go down well with the crowds but JVC also got Max's trade award for 'Best stand at the Show'.
Further success in publicising the product by using a Generation 'Y' car brought JVC's first major hit in a big league youth-oriented motor mag. Max Power snapped the car up for a full ICE feature due to appear in the March issue.
'Team Sizzler' included Carl, Nobby, Roly, DG and thanks also to Gary Wollen for the doors, Jay helping in the last minute scrabble, patient partners and everyone for their fantastic effort and support.
For more information about products, contact JVC at 0208 450 3282, or logon to their website: www.jvcmobile.co.uk

JVC equipment list:
KD-SH9101 CD tuner
KD-DV5000 DVD tuner
XP-7430 Mini notebook computer
13 CS-LD3250 10inch 400W subs
6 KS-AX6500 4x100wrms amps
2prs CS-XV6930 6x9s rated 240W
3prs CS-XV620 6inch rated 150W
4 KV-MH6500 6.5in monitor screens

Specification:
1998cc XE turbo engine. K&N filter. BTB custom stainless system. DTM tailpipes. Getrag 6sp 4x4 gearbox. Carquip 2WD conversion. Bilstein Sport springs and dampers 40mm drop. 288/240mm front/rear discs. Full GM ABS system. 18x8 Vault Chrome wheels with Nankang 215/35 tyres. Body is De-locked, de-badged and uses Viper three channel remote control with solenoids from DEI. PSG Combat 2 body kit with bonnet and wing vents. Rear bumper modded to take twin pipes. One-off PSG spoiler. DTM-style mirrors (don't fit!). Plastic chrome Aero style filler (crap quality and fit!). Modified PVD alloy bee sting. PVD Mk3 rear lights. Isotta Modena Corsa steering wheel. Cobra Monza seats. Max power - 233bhp.0-100 –– 15.5secs. max speed 161mph (with standard front and 195 section tyres). Wiring: Monster cables and accessories 01869 278896. Carquip Tuning (engine and suspension 01366 324318).