This is a pretty boss video: Two animated characters take to the streets with some pretty twisted music playing in the background we see their adventure in a little RC car. Even has a dog attacking them.
The Pana-Z – (Roadster Porsche Panamera)
The Pana-Z – A convertible Nissan 350z, converted to a Porsche Panamera. Built by a BodyShop Kikuta. The bodykit (originally built for the Porsche Panamera) – BodyShop Kikuta then fused the kit with the actual Porsche Panamera panels and.. here we are today. Looking at a Convertible, 2 Door Porsche Panamera. The interior of the car was crafted by NEWING of Hyogo, Japan. Vast expanses of white leather cover almost every surface, including the doors, dash and seats. The shifter and parking brake are adorned with Swarovski style decoration by T-Factory.
The audio system in the Pana-Z advances the split-personality theme and is comprised of gear from Bewith of Japan. The Mirror Media MM-1 Digital Audio player heads up the system and is built around a custom rearview mirror that will accept a compact flash card. It features premium 24-bit 96kHz DACs – very cool. On the split side, when Kameda is competing in an SQ competition or just wants to kick it old school and pop in a CD, he switches up to the Pioneer Carrozzeria DEH-P940. Signals from the MM-1 are sent rearwards to a Bewith State sound processor that is equipped with crossovers and equalization, which allows for fine tuning. The Bewith State connects directly to the MM-1 through a proprietary digital cable.
The six output channels of the Bewith State feed six Bewith Accurate A-110S 100W monoblock amplifiers. Each amplifier is connected to a single Bewith Confidence series speaker. At the top of the doors are C-50II 5cm tweeters, while C-130II 13cm midwoofers are located at the bottom. The rear ‘parcel shelf’ is home to a pair Confidence series woofers which are mounted in sealed enclosures. The midwoofers and subwoofers feature illuminated perimeter lighting which makes them really stand out.
The Pana-Z, as Kameda calls it, rolls on 22-inch VIP Modular wheels. The 10-inch wide wheels are VXS210 models in the rear and VXS110 in the front. Mashup: 2005 Nissan 350Z Pirelli PZero Nero tyres connect the car to the ground. Underneath the massive wheels are 430mm (~17-inch) rotors in the front and 400mm (15.75-inch) rotors in the rear. Clamping the massive rotors are the huge callipers from the CSD 16POT Ultimate Brake system. The suspension utilizes stock shocks with a complete high speed air suspension system. At the touch of a button, Kameda can drop the car to the ground. Bumping power output from the VQ35 is an HKS supercharger.
The majority of the 350Z guys hate it, but as 350z owners ourselves it actually looks kind’ve good! – Would love to see it up-close though.. photos are hardly ever do justice on a car especially when it comes minimalist imperfections.
Here’s a nice video of it by LoonyGarage
Some people just want it louder, some people actually want to make it faster. – Whichever you’re after.. it is possible (long as you got the dough).
This article has been written to answer all those questions honda noobs tend to ask:
- How can i make my vtec louder?
- How do u make vtec scream?
- how do i make the vtec sound lounder?
- how do i make vtec changeover louder?
- how can i make vtec crossover louder?
- how to make vtec louder?
- how to make my honda scream?
- how do i make vtec faster?
For an updated version of this post please checkout our new website here.
Engines
Now there are several different kinds of VTEC engines you’ll come across. SOHC / DOHC – then you’ve gotta move into the B / K / F / H / D series – God.. so many forums browsed and so much read!
First let’s take a look at the SOHC engines.
With these motors there really isn’t much you can do about the crossover difference, as a single cam this engines crossover is sadly just not that violent “or differing”.
The best thing you could possibly do is to make it as loud and grouchy as possible, to do this we’ll have to start by hooking you up with a decent air intake system. You’re not looking for a Cold-Side Air Intake System, you’re looking for something metal, big and with a nice curvy and soft angle bend in it. Add on a decent open pod filter and your car will be screaming! Now of course depending on what country you’re from an air filter should honestly cost only about $50 from China. $100 for something not bad, and a good $300 for something amazing like a Simota.
After you’ve got the inlet all done, now you need to work on your outlet! So we’re talking about the H/E from I/H/E. Headers are crucial get yourself a pair of 4-1 headers, they all look pretty much the same so when you’re buying one don’t look at which one is more shiny or has that stupid purple paint on it. It only looks good on a really fast car not a crappy SOHC engine. We’re poor lol.
To sum things up – Don’t expect any decent power or gains from this SOHC VTEC engine, even with a turbo it’s quite lousy is gains bit of torque and even less horsepower – and vastly increases your chance of blowing something up. The gearbox / transmission is quite trash you have to rebuild it to turbo standards. This setup seems to only be common in the USA.
DOHC Engines
Where VTEC actually matters, both in performance and that beautiful sound. In reality if you are after any kind of decent sound you will need to start forking out just a little bit of cash. Intake / Headers / Exhaust – Actually matter now in everyway! Get yourself a decent muffler and it will be enough to put a smile on your face. Put an air filter on and enjoy some psychological performance gains along with a more deep tone of VTEC.
Now we’ve all come across those morons that think their VTEC crossover is crazy loud, ridicilous power difference. You need to remember the purpose of VTEC is actually to save fuel at low-end RPM and still maintain the power at high-end. i-VTEC is a little more conservative performance wise but works just as good (not sound wise).
The entire VTEC B series will not disapoint in terms sound and performance LS/VTEC (b16 head with a b18 block does wonders for sound! – Best I’ve heard personally was a B18CR with a B21 head – that’s displacement upgraded CR-V Bottom end).
The F series of the S2000 engines again is amazing and even better sounding, sadly the Accord’s VTEC kind of disapoints. The H series is not bad but requires UPGRADING – Do your internals/turbo it if you like, it makes POWERR but lacks the reliability but again doesn’t do too bad with sound.
Finally we come to the KING, the K series – K20 yes! The RAW sound of SCREECHING VTEC but the K24 with i-vtec economical tune doesn’t have a crossover but sounds okay at high-end. Now there’s the .. K20 head on a k24 block one of the best swaps out there – This thing will brake your CV joints, make your steering wheel jerk and make u jizzzzzzzzzz soon as u hear it crossover into VTEC.
Modifications
The holy grail – the reason anyone likes Honda is the mods and guess what. These mods help your VTEC sound!!
The VTEC Climax Kit
Our exhaust system – specifically designed just for those few who want to hear VTEC really engage. When you’ve got this on your car – you laugh at those morons on YouTube who talk about how loud their crossover is.. those people who hear the difference and think O.M.G.
Imagine having a completely quiet / silent sounding exhaust system, probably just louder than a smart car enough but quiet enough to sneak up on a person walking in the middle of the night. That’s QUIET! – Soon as you hit VTEC – ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE! It makes it sound like you’ve hit NOS/TURBO/BOOST/SUPERCHARGE/VTEC/VVTLi/VANOS/VCT all at that same bloody time! – The sound is so loud would you believe we have yet..to find a camera (or microphone) that’s able to capture it without scrambling or distorting? – From nothing to crazy loud is mind blowing.
The exhaust system is a vacuum powered valve – the reason for this is to prevent future issues – As some may know the VAREX variants have many issues – the electric motors die out eventually. SCRM Garage’s VTEC Climax Kit will die only when your cars vacuum stops working (and well.. considering that’s what powers your brakes – You’ll die before the exhaust system stops working).
This device is basically undetectable by the police. Only in a thorough under-carriage vehicle inspection (that of course has a hoist / lift) would be able to spot what it is. It is placed before CAT and can only be opened physically by hand or automatically when engaging VTEC (which only engages above 20 km/h) so it won’t be opening on a stand still. Because of the fact that it’s placed before that CATALYTIC Converter when the device is closed your device functions with all of the standard emissions / smog friendly components of your car. We recommend installing this to your STANDARD exhaust system – although it works fine with an aftermarket.
Where do i get one? http://scrmgarage.com/product/vtec-climax-exhaust/
ITB’s
Let’s take a look at Individual Throttle Bodies (although some call it Individual Racing Throttle Bodies) Let’s just say ITB for now. ITB is basically a way to get a lot more air! – It requires a hefty tune and often a new ECU. It makes real power without a turbo (this is the route most big naturally aspirated builds take).
It’s safe, costly, makes power and a shit tonne of noise! Unfortunately, it is trash for street use. By installing ITBs you’re eliminate most of your car’s daily/practical features:
- IACV – Goodbye Cold Starts, you’ll be holding the accelerator until your car is warmed up (New model ECUs work around this)
- Driving around at low speed in traffic without people looking at you like “WTF”.
- IDLE Issues – They go away !!!
- Jerk Free – Deacceleration. The thing you’ll notice once you’ve got these installed is that when you let off the accelerator you get a lot of jerk (in gear of course
Air Intake Systems
There are two kinds of air intake systems. One designed to draw cold air – these are often referred to as Cold Side Air Intake Systems.
With Hondas we don’t really have a hot/cold air problem. Honda already places the air intake separate from any heat sources. One thing they do often bring in is the really long intakes that go down to the floor to soak up cold as possible air. In reality these “cold-side intakes” don’t make any difference (a little psychological HP/KW is added). Throttle response decreases because of the length of the air intake and it has a deeper sound tone.
There are two issues with this kind of air intake system – the first being that it makes the car seem a little slow when you hit the pedal but in reality the noise compensates for this. The second is because of the height/location if you ever come across a lightly flooded area there’s a HUGE chance your engine will be sucking up water and you’ll end up hydrolocked in the middle of the road.
Then we have the standardized CAI – Often referred to as the Short Ram Intake. That’s a small pipe (often metal based) with a nice little open air/pod filter on the end. This delivers optimal and perfect VTEC sound (also helps with throttle response).
Last of all we have the almighty Spiral intake. Designed by the Chinese but put out there by the Japanese/Americans – Also known as the “Whale Penis” “Whale Dick” “Whale Cock” “Big Tube” “Whaling Tube”.
Simota producing the only one with positive dyno results retails them for roughly $250 but you can pick them up second hand from someone who just wants a change in tone for about $50-80. This air intake provides the best & loudest VTEC tone there is. Combined with an exhaust it’s as loud as you can get… without losing power. (in fact.. gaining)
As you can see Individual Throttle Bodies also need air filters – putting custom K&N air filters on the throttle bodies really does help with the sound. It provides a rich less “screamy/screechy” sound, mono tones it down a little and makes it sound like an actual car that’s modified rather than one of those vans with a blown turbo and loose timing belt driving around loudly.
In conclusion – throw out your stock inlets and outlets! – Mod it up with bolt-ons and you’ll be lovin’ life!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeO2dxH9tUI
This is something every car needs! Only couldn’t this be improved??
- Why not have the car in limp mode (so it can’t exceed 3,000 rpm)
- It also didn’t look like it really limited the top speed? (Why would a valet need to exceed 50 km/h?)
- Why not SAVE the seat position, (allowing the valet to adjust the seat) then restore it when disengaging valet mode)
- Internal Camera – A definite must, a lot of places have multiple valets – who’ll admit to doing anything?
- GPS tracking is also a must have for a system like this (although it already might have it, since it comes with a SATNAV system.
Nice one Chevy, but needs a lot of improvement, It’s just a dash cam that locks the comparments at the moment.
Also, wouldn’t hurt to make this a standard feature, I mean it’s just a dash cam and software – I’m quite curious as to how much this add-on costs from a dealership.
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You thought you had BASS? Window rattle? Rear view mirror rattle? hell.. Rear window waving. This car has body panels waving!
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Tyler Dirden, One of the most realistic Honda CRX Del Sol owners we’ve come across, looks for the affordable and realistic solution to what he wants & needs, posts about it and is quite well known on the HondaTech forums.
To begin, I started with a goal of “least intrusive” enclosure. Bass tubes and boxes are way to intrusive for a car this small and take up alot of usable space. The interior has remained entacted and unaltered for a very clean and modest look.
The enclosure began life as a 20 gallon air tank with a 14″ diameter. This is the largest diameter that can be used without major rear subframe rework. The sub enclosure fits underneath the spare tire which is only raised 2.5″ for this particular installation. The enclosure was meticulously designed to preform with this sub and has the exact reccomended sealed enclosure volume of .8 cubic feet. This sub was chosen for it’s excelent reviews on Amazon and youtube. It also has a very small enclosure size requirement as stated above.
In the pictures below you will see the type of fabrication needed and COMMITMENT that you must have as you are altering the car permanently.
After the tank/enclosure volume is calculated fabrication begins by trimming the end off of the air tank and a small section off the other end. I used a 3″ cut off wheel which took a long time and effort. A plasma cutter would make a very good and fast cut here if you have one. The opening for the sub was cut out of the end of the short section and measured carefully for trimming and forming. The edge for the sub was hand formed with a large dolley and hammer by slowly rolling the edge over to form the speaker mounting flange. You must cut small slots as seen in the rolled egde to make the edge roll flat. I carefully divided the circumfrence of the hole by the speaker mounting holes and came up with an accurate slot placement. This takes time, don’t be in a rush. The final edge can be ground very flat and even when the roll is accomplished.
A hole was marked directly from the tank section in the spare tire well in the exact location (direct center) and cut out with a 3″ cut off wheel. The edges of the trunk ARE NOT level, flat or ready in ANY way to accept the sub flange. I used a floor jack and a large metal block for a stationary dolley under the flange and a regular hammer to form the trunk floor to a perfect flat, round feciever flange. This is simple if you take your time and don’t get hammer crazy.
It was determined that a 3.5″ protrusion underneath the car would be the maximum without becoming the lowest point of contact. I set this enclosure in at 3″ below the spare tire well and it looks fantastic. Making the flange to mount it with was difficult with a cut off wheel but turned out excellent here. The flange is 1/8″ thick steel, like the tank/sub enclosure and is much thicker than the cars metal. The rear of the enclosure has two long fingers that extend from it that tie in the rear tow loop/bumper brace to the rear subframe suspension forward of it. This effectively makes a very strong connection between the two and a SOLID foundation for BASS production without unwanted resonation (buzzing, rattles). I spent about 20 hours building it after everything was designed correctly and sourced parts for the build. 20 ss bolts and lock nuts are used to mount the enclosure here.
The finished enclosure will be rubberized on the inside for dampening. The round shape will not produce harmfull harmonics on the back side of the sub that boxes generally do. The round sub enclosure promotes clean compression and de-compression of the sub structure. The spare tire here is a 15″ rim that will sit nicely on the top of the sub and doubles as a grill! With only a 2.5″ raise of the spare, some jumper cables etc., can be stored underneath if properly secured.
You may be thinking that just because I went through all this trouble I would give a biased review; wrong. I will tell you the truth. Without this sub for the last 6 months, I really thought my forward system was loud (mid/highs) and was craving bottom which it never delivered. Even though the doors have massive 6.5″ mid woofers by Lanzar which took a very long time to get into the door without interfering with the window; they have no rear sealed enclosure to bring out the bass they could make. They have like 5 lbs magnets on each one. Again very loud but not much bass.
When I got this sub up and going for the first time on low settings (nothing on the levels are maxed) I don’t abuse amps, this changed the whole dynamic. It is scary how much bass a single 12″ sub can produce in the proper sized enclosure. It will bumb a kick drum on rock music sooo sweet and clean. It will pound a boom boom from bass favorites that is clean and undistorted. It hits the entire car out well and without rattles from handles and stuff in doors that buzz. The sub is solidly mounted to the floorpan and rear SUBframe (haha) of the DelSol and produces great bass in the seat of your pants. Subs mounted in the trunck don’t have that fuzzy cabin bass like some love because it gets dampened a bit but ALL the solid hits come through without a hitch and resonance bass too.
I am going to have to install more mid and highs up front to get the ballance of really loud and clear I want. I really like to immerse myself in a big song and dissapear into the noise for a moment, like soo loud you can’t be distracted by anything in life until the volume drops. A cocoon of sound, concert level and clean. I will give more updates with the next amp and forward equipment. This has been a very rewarding install and worth every moment to me. The few people that have seen it so far are blown away at the spare tire location. At first when the bass was low, the spare tire rested well on the edge of the sub shell. But when I bumped it up the tire bounced! I mean bounced and moved around. I had to raise it off the sub shell a half inch or so with a pool noodle to keep it put. This full size spare weighs 22 lbs and it was bouncing around. It stays put now and is dampened by the foam support underneath. It also makes a very clean grill to protect the sub that looks great.
The big ass hole in the dash is for the future air ride accesories and active crossover unit. I will fab a nice pocket out for the regulators and gauges etc and make a cover that will keep it sorta low key like the SRS bag that was there once.
As far as roadsters go, they’re cool, some fun, some handle, some speed, some drift. But how about pumping up music in your roadster? Let’s all be honest, it does kind of make you look like a “doosh”. Nevertheless when we’re alone, cruising or even just in town driving with the girlfriend and you can’t be bothered listening to her wind lol. We all need music, (some may disagree).
We all know there are several kinds of convertibles, let’s start off with the typical 2-Door sports coupe roadsters/spyders, Take a look at this Mazda MX-5 Miata – NB
These things have very little room for car audio, we did a fair share of experiments with this. Now first off the NB actually came with a “BOSE” system and NON-BOSE system, of course if you have the BOSE system it’s not really a good idea to change it. Others kill to have it, also they work with 1/2 or 1 ohm i believe, making them quite un-modifiable, in order to improve it in anyway, you’d have to replace everything! – Including the head unit (there’s a work around for this), the amplifiers, speakers & tweeters.
This particular model has been through a fair share of setups, now at first we thought why did they decide to put small-ass on the windblocker? You can’t hear them unless the roof is on, and even then.. they just aren’t clear. So why not upgrade them? Well we had a spare wind-blocker to experiment with, we just cut it up to see how we’d go with the sound but came to the conclusion that regardless of how you tune it, that “rear” fill-in just doesn’t work right in these cars. It’s just too close your ears – of course this would be driver dependant – The driver of this vehicle was quite tall, therefore minor “tall-guy” modifications had been made, keeping the driver a little further back then the average MX-5 driver.
There’s basically no room for a subwoofer as you’ll see in the gallery, the padding under the carpet is quite thick, but when removed honestly does cause a lot of road noise (which is not easy to get use to after driving in a Mazda) – If it were a Honda or something, it’d be much more acceptable. A subwoofer in the boot does work just fine, you’ll see on the Miata forums that a lot of people do actually install subwoofers, even though it rattles like crazy. Dynamat does help dramatically.
Like all roadsters, the MX-5 needs bass in it’s doors, but of course at the end of the day it’s a door, it can’t handle a massive subwoofer, but a mid-bass driver will do just fine. Keep in mind the MX-5 has 8 inches of room to make your ears jizz! We experimented with 2 kinds of speaker setups, the Rockford Fosgate 6×8″ and Clearwater CWC-8 (9 was not available at that time). The Rockford Fosgate speakers work just fine, they get the done job and for a reasonable price. Also they provide a significant amount of mid-bass. We tried using some left over dynamat we had, it actually made a huge difference in terms of quality and rattling. We tried 3 different kinds, all provided some kind of improvement.
All the images below are all captioned appropriately. – the caption should appear above the image.
In conclusion, if you’re looking at building a sound system for a two-door roadster – We at Scream Garage recommend getting yourself a decent set of door speakers, aim for speakers that can provide a fair amount of bass – in the MX-5 you can fit an eight inch – some cars aren’t so lucky. In terms of bass the CWC-8 clearwaters were great! Of course any set of speakers that provide a realistic amount of bass will need to be backed up by a nice and powerful amplifier – Unfortunately in the world of amplifiers there are a lot of fake statistics – We recommend going for brand-names.
- Kicker (classic models KX ZX)
- Rockford Fosgate
- Vibe (stick with the high-end models) – this applies for both speakers and amplifiers. Vibe’s low end and high end speakers actually have a huge difference.
Definitely invest a decent amount in sound deadening or dampening material (Dynamat), our pictures are not an example to follow we just used what was left over, take a look at this installation here
Rear speakers, don’t help or let alone work. Depending on the vehicle for example if you’re thinking of a Nissan 350z a subwoofer in the rear helps, also the standard bose system actually provides a subwoofer as well as “rear-fill-in speakers” but in all honesty it isn’t all that. One of the best standard sound systems I have heard was in a 2012 Mazda CX-7, again they went with bass in the doors (of course being a really large vehicle, it has the freedom of building a mini sub box in each door). In a roadster it’s quite hard to get the same sound.
Now when the roof is down, bass changes everything – If you’re dealing with an MX-5 Miata or an S2000 a subwoofer just does damage. Some people find it necessary but in all honesty if you get the right set of speakers it provides more than enough bass with and without the roof. (If you have a hard top, a subwoofer does work fine. Moving back to the 350z the seating position is much lower and the body of the car is much taller, this means you have a higher cabin and it feels larger because in terms of Square Meters it is! and this means it has a dramatic effect on sound. A subwoofer in a 350z works wonders however an aftermarket subwoofer is too much, as it’s been placed right behind the driver seat (Australian Model) – It causes your “lungs” to rattle regardless of how long it’s set.
Head unit wise, in all honesty it is just depends on taste, this is not something that could be debated or called “the best” – All work fine with convertibles, keep in mind our vehicles will experience a fair share of sun, so if you buy something that looks like it’ll screw up from the sun, it’s probably better to play it safe and get something more durable. The LCD (Calculator like) screened head units work just fine, they can handle years of sun damage.
These have been quite popular lately, although they’ve been around for years. Although the sticker is laid out as an equalizer it doesn’t actually function as one, it’s merely just a sound wave sensor. The bars cannot move individually, they’re parallel but are set by default to begin and end at different levels. Think of it as a mono equalizer.
They cost roughly $30 – 90 depending on what size and type. If you are unsure of which one to go for I recommend you go for the “Sky Blue”, It’s the lightest blue of them all, it might be called Aqua by some retailers. They do not seem to have a white option available but this suits most colors.
Detailed Video – Del Sol- (Large file) 100 MB
MX-5 (Small Video)
Now like any other product the first generations were much better. The previous versions had a decent controller, the microphone seemed to be more directed at music rather than adopting road noise. We tried mounting this inside the glove box, behind a seat, near a speaker, towards the rear of the car near the subwoofer, behind the subwoofer (set to the minimal setting), on the ceiling, below the driver side dash. Unfortunately as the new version is poorly made, the microphone seems to have poor adjustment at one point it barely works, half a millimeter later it picks up wind and road noise.
In this video you’ll see the multi-colored “Not-so-good” looking version: Although this version actually has the retailers domain on it, which is quite interesting. It wouldn’t be a cheap modification when ordering these.
Now overall it’s nice, it looks cool, better than under car neons. These actually suit most cars, however the multi-colored version just looks ghastly. You can just tell it’s made in China. However the blue, green, sky-blue and red version are actually quite nice.
This is a Unique Model, it has speakers along the side and the equalizer is actually on an angle
Initial Product is just a sticker, along with a small module box about the size of your palm. Here’s an image of the initial product from gadget-review.
The overall issue with the device is, it’s sound sensitivity, either you need to re-adjust it constantly along with your head unit’s volume – Because if well.. let’s say you adjusted this while you were at 80% volume, when you listen to music at 20 or 30% volume it doesn’t hear it. Or like most car audio equipment just adjust it to the most common volume level you listen to and it’ll do it’s job. Another issue we encountered upon reviewing this product was that it actually draws a very large current, and the wires that come with it are just terrible, they pickup interference and interfere with everything else.
Be warned if you decide to use this product, avoid running it near RCA cables or power cables, it doesn’t seem to have any earthing issues. But it wouldn’t hurt it to earth it to a very solid point (maybe the handbrake or seat belts). If you have an amplifier, don’t bother even running wires near any of them as it will interfere with the sound dramatically (especially if you have tweeters).
