When you're marketing a product, it's essential to be in touch with your buyer
group. That's why Sony Australia's Product/Marketing Specialist - Craig Handley
- chose the Nissan R34 Skyline as the vehicle to showcase some of the company's
leading sound products.
"The R34 is a car that really attracts the AutoSalon
type crowd," he says.
This vehicle - a 1999 GT-T - is displayed across the
country at shows alongside a similar Sony GT-R. The previous promo car honours
list includes a Honda Prelude, a Ford XR8 and some current Ford Focuses.
The XPLOD Skyline was not one of the many Japanese imports that had been
crashed in Japan and imported to Australia to be fixed. No way. This baby has
been extremely well cared for and was purchased from a specialist importer with
a genuine 9000 kilometres on the LCD odo.
Craig admits the Skyline doesn't have particularly great interior acoustics.
"There's a large diff hump and the rear seat doesn't fold forward, which isn't
ideal," he explains.
Not that any of this is an issue at car shows where plenty
of decibels and a great visual feast are the most important aspects.
The headunit for all the sound madness is a Sony XPLOD WX7700MDX
CD/Minidisc/tuner unit. This sends signals to two Sony amps - a XM754SX
delivering up to 75W RMS x 4 to the front and rear full-range speakers and a
XM1001D Class D subwoofer amp capable of 600W RMS x 1. Note that this is a US
market product that was never sold in Australia. In total there's
around a kilowatt of sound!
Other source units fitted include a MDX Minidisc stacker, a DVX100S DVD
changer and Playstation 2. An LCD screen was mounted at the head of the dash,
but the standard triple gauge pod presently occupies that location - Craig
explains that the XPLOD R34 will soon be undergoing yet another equipment
change!
A pair of 6 ½-inch Sony XPLOD XSHF600G component speakers has been fitted to
the doors - the main drivers in the factory speaker location and the tweeters in
the all-important sail area. No acoustic filling or deadener has been applied to
the insides of the doors. At the rear, a pair of 5 ¼-inch Sony XPLOD XSHF58
component speakers is mounted in a facia at the leading edge of the boot. These
speakers are aimed rearward primarily for the benefit of audiences, but they do
aid in-car listening as well. By removing the factory rear shelf speakers, music
from the rear 5 1/4s can spill into the cabin for a bit of sound 'fill'.
And now let's look at where the bass lives!
The Skyline boot is the home for twin XSL1255GH 12-inch subwoofers. These are
mounted in a fibreglass and 12mm MDF enclosure, which swallows the space usually
reserved for the factory spare wheel. Note that the amps are mounted in a way
that reputedly provides maximum cooling - important when the system is cranked
up for extended periods at car shows.
And how much weight does all of this sound gear add up to, you ask? Well not
as much as you might think - the car is now less than 20 kilograms heavier than
it was in standard form with the space saver wheel in place.
"We placed a lot of
emphasis on keeping the system weight down," says Craig. "The small brackets we
used to mount the amplifiers, for example, weigh only a few grams."
Any small performance sacrifice caused by the extra kilos has been more than
compensated with some tinkering under the bonnet on the factory 'NEO' RB25DET
motor.
Sydney's BD4s
Service Centre came to the party with some simple but effective
power-up mods. Battling for the deepest bass note is a HKS Hyper cat-back
exhaust system while mid-range accompaniment comes from an exposed generic pod
filter mounted on the end of the standard airflow meter.
This enhanced 'in and out' breathing is further improved with the fitment of
an impressive looking HKS front-mount bar-and-plate intercooler. The pipework
for this 'cooler has been carried over from when the vehicle was previously
fitted with an A'PEXi front-mount intercooler.
Power? Expect somewhere around 30 percent up on the standard 206kW output,
which ain't bad considering the small number of mods. A brass button clutch was
fitted almost immediately after our photo shoot - this is in anticipation of a
plug-in A'PEXi Power FC and a bit more boost.
There wouldn't be much point cramming a heap of sound gear into a promo car
and leaving the body looking standard - another attraction (aside from sheer
decibels) is required to pull a crowd. An appearance straight out of 'The Fast
and the Furious' comes thanks to a Top Secret style carbon fibre bonnet
(currently a high fashion item in Japan), Nismo side skirts, rear 'bar and wing
and an aggressive C-West front 'bar.
Kick-arse looking Rays ITC-S rims - measuring 18 x 7.5 at the front and 18 x
8.5 at the rear - fill out the guards with ease. There's not a lot of clearance
for the 265mm wide rear tyres, however. A squatter stance is provided by lowered
Whiteline springs working with Bilstien front and Koni rear dampers. Some
playing ground with the damper valving has the car handling almost perfectly.
Note that ride height has been slightly raised since our photo shoot.
"There
are a few enthusiasts here at Sony and the car gets driven quite a bit," says
Craig.
Inside there's a definite aftermarket flavour but it doesn't render it
unusable. A pair of electric Recaro pews, a Momo wheel and gear knob and a Roman
AutoTek door and rear seat retrim adds a lot of character to the usually kinda
bland Nissan interior.
Oh, and did we mention the sound system?!
Contacts:
Sony Australia +61 2 9887 6666
BD4s Service Centre +61 2 9879 3322
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