How many of you have a small subwoofer custom made box in your Testarossa? 512TR?

Thanks..I would be interested in a sub woofer set up.

 

Can't you just fit/lay that tube on the rear area without further ado?

 

I have a set of shakers under the seats. It has been a bit of time, but I think they are Boston Acoustics. This is similar to what I am talking about http://www.smarthome.com/8249p.html

Between the 2 ways by the feet and the tweeters in the dash, it sounds and feels very good without changing the look of the car.
Adam

 

My '86 came with a big bag of late 80s early 90s electronic accessories. Among the following:

Phone junk: Hands-free system with mic/speaker above driver's head. Outside antennna on passenger's 3/4 glass (inductive coupled physical short whip antenna). Clunky big phone holder on the right side of the console where it interferes with the glove compartment door.

Alarm junk: Alpine system with a keyboard cut into the door upper sill at the front of the driver's door. Wiring embedded everywhere.

Radio junk: High end (for the day) Kenwood tape/CD/tuner, amp in front compartment, and they actually cut a hole in the front firewall to mount a sub-bass. There are two tweeters in the back shelf area, as well as the two in front and the big speakers in the foot wells. Believe it or not, what looked like little LED lamps just to the right of the A/C controls & shifter, are in fact a series of push buttons which we believe are wired into the Kenwood to change tracks on the C/D. At any rate, they go to a ribbon connector and into the tuner head.

Radar detector junk: Prewired into the glove compartment, I do not know what kind the wiring was made for.

Needless to say, this is going to be very expensive to retrofit back to anything like the original. Plus, when I had to have the dash out to fix the A/C system, Norwood's had to charge us about an extra 4 hours work time because of all the tangle of non-standard wiring in the way of everything. It was all soldered together and potted in epoxy so you could not just unplug parts of it.

I will still have to deal with the hole cut in the front compartment for that speaker.

What I am simply saying is this: While this stuff may seem ultra-cool at the moment, it rapidly becomes obsolete. It is a great risk to the car in taking the interior apart and putting it back if not done by a true professional. And remember, just because somebody can take apart an SUV and wire it does not mean they are qualified to take apart the nearly irreplacable interior parts of a Testarossa.

I think that this stuff is almost like converting your 2-car garage into a rec room - they say it actually reduces the value of your house by just about the same amount of money that you put into the conversion in the first place. Thus, you pay for this stuff twice.

Also, just IMHO, these cars are not about the audio system. It comes with an audio system under the hood. Anything else is just to catch the news and weather.

James (of the very well equipped & accessorized electronical Testarossa class).

 

+1, All you really need is the sweet sound of the engine, and maybe a nice head unit that can be easily upgraded as times change, and some quality speakers in the stock locations..................please dont rip the car apart, save that for a slow and sluggish car!

I had a box that someone installed and removed it, I upgraded the speakers and installed a new Alpine head unit, but I never turn it on................

 

my 512M has a large subwoofer that takes up the whole shelf behind the seats, it sounds great

just make sure no one drills into the fuel tank below

 

my previous testarossa had a subwoofer in a customer enclosure that looked like a bread box on the shelf behind the seats. an amp used to be mounted in the trunk. since the amp was no longer installed, the sub didn't work. i didn't like it all, because it was so intrusive and really looked like a bread box.

my current testarossa also has a sub (seems to be a common theme for testarossa owners). it is mounted in the passenger footwell, at the firewall of the front trunk. ugly also. it also doesn't work because i have no idea what kind of wiring is hiding back there. i am removing it and returning to stock.

my advice is that a radio doesn't belong in a testarossa. the engine with my tubi is pretty loud (and eventually hiflow cats/precats) and makes the radio pretty pointless. but maybe 512TRs are more civilized than the earlier cars, so putting in a decent radio is worthwhile. although, my personal opinion is that anything before a 550 is too loud for a radio.

john

 

I'd appreciate that. I looked at the door speakers for a few minutes one day but decided against doing anything at the time. It could be a nice winter project. My door speakers are factory, 15 years old, and not so hot.

 

Wow! Very nice clean work!

 

WHY?

 

What size are the door speakers in a TR?

 

I must agree too! I haven't looked under the door in so long I forgot what was there. My Aston has a great system and to be honest it all I need. When it's time to ride I want to hear the ponies.

John

 

James,
This almost to the 'T' describes my car. I bet I could get $200 in bulk copper from all the wiring in it. I plan to painstakingly remove it, but as you know it is really time consuming.

John

 

My amps were installed in LA, they look great and sound good

the Nav system is awesome too
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And probably $2000 to get it out without turning the car into salvage...we need to get together at the next show and compare notes.

 

I agree. I took a couple of panels off the lower section of the dash and went oh no. It will be time consuming. BTW I hate working under the dash.

John

 

James Patterson at Norwoods had to completely take out my dash to fix the air conditioner coil pack that was leaking, and the heater control valve. He called me specially while it was apart so that I could see what was underneath there...to be honest, I was a little afraid to start ripping it all out right then for fear of doing damage, and also I wanted to be able to drive the car I had just bought instead of undergoing a two month repair.

Mine has no plug connections to be found - just soldered junctions which are potted in epoxy...so it will be "all or nothing".

I hope our experiences will make a few people think twice about undergoing customized electrical modifications on these historic cars.

James

 

Don't let these guys scare you. It is easy to take the dash out of the car. One note is that you count the spacer washers between the mounting tangs and the steel square tube. Once the dash is out, you can mount some silk tweeters in stock location, you can mount 6.5 woofers in the kick panels. Or if your car came with speakers in the doors, try to sick with original mounting locations. By now the kick panels could probably use some patching of the fiberglass around the screw mounts. The crossovers can go in the console or behind the dash or even in the kick panels. The passenger side cover over the fuse/relay area can be replaced with 1/4" aluminium plate and the amp (but not 1000 watt) can be mounted on the back side. Most of the systems in the car magazines use an enclosure on the package tray for the subwoofer and you unplug/remove for travel storage. Don't let anyone cut big holes anywhere because someday, someone will have to repair the damage. Think of these cars as fancy Fiats and plan ahead.

Jeff Pintler
89 348tb, 86tr

 

Thanks, Jeff. Now I feel a lot more courage. So, is my Porsche 993 just a fancy Corvair?

 

No, its a fancy Beetle

 

Well, I guess they are all witches underneath, William.

Please see the Bernie Ecclestone divorce thread.