#LOUDHERTZCAR our latest Demo car

During lockdown we came to the decision that it was time to retire our VW Polo that had been on the scene for the last 10 years, so all the equipment was removed, and sent it off to the scrap yard. 

We obtained a high tuned Ford Focus MK2 ST 225 that was much in need of some care to bring it back to its former glory. We set to replacing the damaged front bumper and panels that had been damaged. 

Juicy Car Care were called in to bring the shine back to the very faded (almost pink) paintwork. Ben from juicy Car Care took 2 days performing the paint correction, and the results speak for themselves. Apart from a few chips and scratches, the paint is now better than it was when it was built.

A new MOT was obtained, after replacing the worn out parts, and the vehicle was then driven for a few weeks to make sure that any other underlying fault would show, and sure enough the did! A trip to our local Ford Tuning specialists, Devil Developments in Littlehampton quickly diagnosed and rectified the problems and then we were ready for our work to commence.

First thing we had to do was upgrade the power from the alternator, as we knew that the system we had planned would be very power hungry. The subwoofer amplifier HERTZ SPL Monster MP15K Unlimited (which is capable of creating 18,000 watts RMS) would consume a lot of energy. So, we contacted D2U Alternators to build us an uprated Factory replacement Alternator which could produce nearly twice the Amperage of the factory original, with an external, adjustable voltage regulator. we attached 2 additional 2/0 AWG power cables were run from the alternator to the boot (trunk) along with an addition 2/0 AWG earth (ground) return, as well as additional grounding from the engine to the chassis, a process know as the big 3 to ensure a complete loop of power and ground from alternator, to batteries and back. Whilst performing this upgrade we also deleted the factory battery, as all power would be supplied from 3 banks of 6 45A/Hr Lithium Cells. 

Skinz sound treatment to the roof, floor, doors, boot lid and external panels, along with expanding fireproof foam was installed before construction of the enclosure for the Subwoofers started.

We knew from experience with building our polo that we could get huge numbers (dB) if we tuned the enclosure to peak at one frequency (Hz), the typical boomer is designed to peak at one frequency in order to obtain the highest possible output, it does that by not wasting energy by playing the other frequencies, but the downside to this is its ability to play music, which is made up of a harmony of note and chords, imagine playing a bass guitar with 1 string, with just 1 hand and you will get the idea.

but for this demo car we decided to take a different approach to the normal.

We wanted this car to play all music loud, so when designing the enclosure opted for a flat response so that bass frequencies would play all frequencies at the same level.

we installed 4 x 10" SPL Show mid bass speakers in the boot, along with a set of 35mm High efficiency compression drivers (tweeters), the doors are home to 4 sets of 8" Midrange drivers also matched with 2 sets of ST35 high-frequency drivers. Amplification for the mid bass drivers is provided by Hertz HP802 - 800wRMS amplifiers under each seat and the tweeters are powered by a Hertz HCP4DK amplifier. A Hertz H8DSP was used to tune the system, and our final addition was to disguise the Audiocontrol ACR-U remote subwoofer level control as  the factory cigarette lighter.

Our first outing (trial run) was to Ultimate Street Car USC 2021 at Santa Pod on the saturday, followed by Ford Fair at Silverstone on the Sunday. we had a run with Propper droppers and obtained a measurement of 146dB with a deviation of less than 3 dB from 20Hz - 60Hz. On Sunday we were delighted when we were presented with a rosette for being one of their chosen TOP 10 ST's which is some accomplishment when considering the 1000's of Ford ST at the event.

Once back at Worthing, the car was hibernated for the winter, while planning was made to make some slight improvements.

Spring arrived, and with a month before our 1st show, the car was brought back to our workshops to make the improvements which have resulted in a reading of over 150dB and the final trim panels fitted. just in time for Modified Nationals at Peterborough, an event we were invited to, to be the main attraction by Four Car Audio, the UK Distributors for Hertz and Audison