The Civic's system is the most radical installation ever produced by the Alpine team, requiring the entire car interior to be gutted. The idea was to design an absolute optimum listening environment placing the driver squarely in the center of the cockpit for optimum path lengths. With the knowledge that the Civic Si would solely be a show car and not intended for street driving, Yato and Brown binned the car's dashboard and started from scratch.

Five Alpine TME-M760 6.5-inch widescreen video monitors dominate the interior, facing the driver, surrounded by motorized pods housing eight Autometer Ultra-Lite gauges. In the passenger's-side door, Yato and Brown mounted the primary audio source units, a CDA-9813 CD receiver and Alpine's latest, the HDA-5460 hard disk drive player. In the driver's door are mounted two additional components, a DVA-5205 DVD player and the PXA-H700 Multimedia manager, an advanced signal processor featuring Dolby Pro Logic II, Dolby Digital and DTS mobile theater capabilities. The video output of DVA-5205 plus the separate DHA-S680 6-disc DVD changer and a Nintendo Game Cube can be viewed on any or all of the monitors facing the driver.

The centerpiece of the installation is the motorized pod that also serves as the amp rack, which faces out the hatchback opening. The same arms that hold the gauges are attached to the amplifiers so that for access into and out of the seat, the rack moves forward and back almost two feet. One belted in, the pod moves forward, placing the eight gauges right in the driver's peripheral vision. And to further reinforce the effect of the two 15-inch woofers, the enclosure ports fire up through the seat. Since Yato and Brown were not restricted by the need to accommodate two front seat passengers, the area below the A-pillars are used to create the four-way front sound stage: midbass emanates from two SPR-176A 6.5-inch component speakers plus a full SPR-136A component speaker set are vertically mounted in the front panels, angled-in slightly to the driver. A pair of SWR-1221D 12-inch subwoofers in sealed enclosures provides tight, up-front sub bass and complete the front soundstage, mounted in what would normally be the foot well on a more conventional Civic.

The system's audio horsepower is on the backside of the amp rack, where three Alpine mono amps (MRD-M1000, MRD-M500, MRD-M300) are mounted. Additional power is provided by another MRD-M1000, plus two of Alpine's V12 amps (the MRV-F540 and MRV-F340) all of which are mounted in a steel enclosure underneath the car. Additional rear speakers are mounted on each side, flanking the amp rack along with three additional TME-M760 monitors are mounted on the hatchback door.

The Alpine Civic Si was built in conjunction with Wings West, and it features their new Civic body kit. Southern California artist Noah created the custom airbrushed artwork. The mermaid and water theme that is airbrushed on the entire exterior of the car, also flows into the interior (seat, dash, amp rack, steering column, steering wheel), and was placed over the car's base paint of House of Kolor's Trublue Pearl. Other enhancements include upgraded Swift two-piece wheels were supplied by I Forge, shod with Toyo Proxes T1-S tires. Front and rear big brake upgrades were supplied by AEM, who also contributed spark plug covers and an air intake for the car. An Eibach pro kit with one-inch drop gives the car an agressive stance. Interior modifications include a Tekniq quick-release steering wheel hub and Sparco shift knob and driving pedals.

And there you have it, a unlimited budget, no holds barred car audio installation. Lets see what they cook up next year.

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