What's the car of your dreams?
I would have to pick the following dreamcars:
2005 Brabus Mercedes M-Class
2007 Ford Shelby Cobra GT500
2006 Ranger Rover Supercharged
What's yours?
2005 Brabus Mercedes M-Class
2007 Ford Shelby Cobra GT500
2006 Ranger Rover Supercharged
What's yours?
Comments
1. Unadulterated race shocks.
2. Street-Illegal racing slicks.
3. Engine swap: SpeedSource tweaked 13B-MSPRE with custom built electric turbocharger and variable intake manifold.
Should lighten the car a bit (~1800lbs), and be good for more than 300rwhp. The result is a car with top-class GT handling and with a power-to-weight ratio near that of a liter-bike. . . For less than $100 grand for sure, and it can run on pump gas.
Originally posted by ShawnJ
I would have to pick the following dreamcars:
What's yours?
The Range Rover Sport. Smaller than the regular one, but still very confortable, and enough place for my golf clubs ...
Since my dream car is going to be nice and quiet, I want it to have a completely user-upgradable audio system where after-market equipment plugs right... Not like, oh, a certain Subaru I recently purchased, where the cheesy, no-input-for-my-iPod built-in audio system is completely intertwined with the HVAC controls, making impossible to remove the factory radio without disabling heating, ventilation, and A/C.
or maybe the movie version of this... if fully functional.
Originally posted by shetline
Not like, oh, a certain Subaru I recently purchased, where the cheesy, no-input-for-my-iPod built-in audio system is completely intertwined with the HVAC controls, making impossible to remove the factory radio without disabling heating, ventilation, and A/C.
What did you recently purchase? I just got a WRX and it came with the "upgrade" sound system with 6 CD in dash changer. I can't recall if the audio is integrated into the temp controls, but there is OF COURSE a way to hook up an iPod.
Right now I'm looking for a clever way to route the Firewire I/O directly into the stereo, track info and all, and also allow full utilization of the control knobs. It will certainly require some embedded hardware skills, but I have those.
Originally posted by Splinemodel
What did you recently purchase? I just got a WRX and it came with the "upgrade" sound system with 6 CD in dash changer. I can't recall if the audio is integrated into the temp controls, but there is OF COURSE a way to hook up an iPod.
My 2005 Legacy came with the so-called upgrade 6 CD in-dash changed too. And yes, there are "ways" to hook-up and iPod -- I have one hooked up now -- but only shitty and/or far, far more complicated and compromised ways of doing so, involving problems which could have been avoided if Subaru wasn't either incredibly stupid about, or actively hostile towards, aftermarket audio.
If your WRX is a 2005 model, not a 2004, you probably face the same issues I do. First of all, the factory head unit has no auxiliary line input. Unlike the 2004 models, even the external link between the CD changer and the radio/amp no longer exists, closing off one popular aftermarket approach for integrating external audio sources.
The only external input is the FM antenna input -- a noisy, low-fi solution at best when compared to a line-level audio connection. Subaru even makes the best form of FM input (direct-wired input) difficult by using non-standard antenna connectors, connectors which don't work with the standard Motorola-style RF connectors typically used for hooking up external RF modulators.
(In the past few weeks has an aftermarket antenna adapter for Subaru radios become available. I lost patience well before that and hacked my own solution: cutting the pigtail antenna connector and inserting an inline male/female pair of standard Motorola connectors -- connectors designed to be solderless, but soldered and gooped down with epoxy for strain relief because they were designed for crimping onto a much thicker gauge of wire than the also-non-standard antenna lead used by Subaru.)
So, what if you'd like to do better than moderately crappy wired-FM solutions (which I'm settling for now), or a really crappy wireless solution, like using an iTrip or AirPlay? Replace the head unit with a better head unit? Like perhaps the really nice Alpine I had in my previous car and had wished to install in my new car? Hah!
The HVAC controls share a single contiguous piece of dashboard plastic with the radio/CD changer controls. At the very least, this arrangement poses mechanical and cosmetic challenges to using an aftermarket head unit.
The problems, however, go deeper than that. Behind the dashboard faceplate is a single, vertically-mounted circuit board to which both sets of controls are mounted. Behind that board is a single metal box housing, as one unit, the HVAC controls, radio, amp, and CD changer.
Short of someone designing a no-doubt very expensive, Subaru-specific replacement unit which duplicates the functionality of Subaru's HVAC system, or a difficult and expensive custom-rebuilding/repackaging of the electronics inside a factory combo HVAC/Audio unit, you're pretty much stuck with the factory sound system staying in your car -- even if you don't want to use it, it's not going anywhere.
What are some of the non-FM solutions?
There's a hack I've found online where you open up your radio, splice into the CD changer cable, and then, with the aid of a CD with nothing but a single track of 80 minutes of silence, fake out your factory unit that your now-direct-wired iPod is a CD playing. You will, of course, have to put up with the audio muting for a couple of seconds every 80 minutes when the fake-out CD audio auto-repeats.
There's also just enough space between the two air vents over the radio that, with a custom modification/rebuild of the vent housing, you can squeeze in a standard DIN-style aftermarket head unit (just barely) between the two vents. No aftermarket wiring harnesses exist for the 2005 Subaru, so you'll have to create your own harnesses or hack into the existing wiring for power, speaker output, etc., all while making sure you don't disable the power or control signals needed for the HVAC unit.
Using a homemade wiring harness and/or hacking into the factory wiring, you might also go the route of using nothing more than an amplifier wired to your speakers -- but you'd have no radio that way, and you'd have to control volume via a volume control on the amp itself (might not be convenient to reach) or via your iPod.
Both of the above approaches mean that your dashboard contains a distracting, useless and essentially dead head unit that you can't get rid of.
Even sticking with their annoying all-in-one HVAC/Audio design, it shouldn't have cost Subaru more than $5 to provide a simple auxiliary line input which could have made life so, so much easier and better not only for millions of iPod users, but satellite radio users as well.
It's weird that a company that's known for turning a blind eye to performance mods has BMW-ed the stereo.
Anyway, I think I will try to go the extra mile and hack the iPod to work with this unit. I will probably do it via the USB linkup, since USB ICs are cheaper and more ubiquitous than Firewire ICs. I will have to make a small PCB to put the chips on (needed to communicate with the iPod, and potentially to decode the MP3/AAC stream), but that should be quite small and easy to stash in one of many places. I will also have to make a few solder connections to the stereo/hvac board. Hopefully not more than a few.
Originally posted by Splinemodel
Anyway, I think I will try to go the extra mile and hack the iPod to work with this unit. I will probably do it via the USB linkup, since USB ICs are cheaper and more ubiquitous than Firewire ICs. I will have to make a small PCB to put the chips on (needed to communicate with the iPod, and potentially to decode the MP3/AAC stream), but that should be quite small and easy to stash in one of many places. I will also have to make a few solder connections to the stereo/hvac board. Hopefully not more than a few.
My current set-up is like this:
I'm working with a Belkin cigarette-lighter power adapter which has a line-level audio output. The output level is adjusted only by a pot on the adapter -- the output level is not affected by the iPod's volume setting.
I also have a wired FM stereo modulator. The modulator and the Belkin adapter are both stashed inside the dashboard behind the radio, taking power off the back of the cigarette lighter.
As mentioned before, the pigtail FM lead which hangs out of the back of the radio has been cut, and a pair of standard Motorola-style connectors inserted.
The modulator is wired up to the new antenna connections. The audio inputs for the modulator are hooked to the audio outputs of the Belkin adapter, with the volume adjusted to the highest level I could reach without obvious distortion or loss of the stereo (it looks like perhaps my modulator drops its stereo subcarrier when overdriven).
I've cut a small slot into the back of the dashboard cubbyhole which is located between the two central air vents. The iPod connector cable comes up through this hole, making it convenient to leave the iPod connected while stashing it away in the cubbyhole. When in use, the iPod is pulled out and hangs from a vent-mounted bracket. The cubbyhole door closed neatly over the cable. A small switch that I've mounted just inside the that door turns power on and off to the FM modulator.
This works reasonably well, and much, much better than a wireless FM adapter. The sound isn't as clean as I'd like. however, certainly not nearly as good as a direct line-level signal would be, so I've been growing dissatisfied.
Now, if you're going to be poking around inside your WRX's radio (I'm guessing it's internally the same as mine) perhaps you can figure this out: Where does the line-level output from the radio run through the circuit board? If you could find this, I'd be reasonably happy using that info to do as follows...
Cut the left and right signal leads for the radio's output, just before whatever point the signal selector for CD/Radio is located. Splice in a DPDP relay switch. In the off position, have the radio signal pass through as normal. In the on position, take the signal from my iPod.
Then, instead of needing to do something as kludged as playing a CD at the same time that I play my iPod -- and still have to worry about drop-outs when the CD runs out and repeats -- all I'd have to do is turn on the radio and flip my bypass switch.
How does that strike you as a somewhat less involved solution?
The 2007 Scorpion.
Ford GT Need I say more
http://www.seriouswheels.com/top-200...mental-Car.htm
It will be available next year for about $425,000 (+ gas guzzler tax).
The next Lexus IS300 of course. Finally living up to its name with a 3.5litre 6 cyclinder engine. 300+ horsepower and 275lb ft of torque with Lexus opulence. I'm dreaming affordable nowadays folks :P
Originally posted by shetline
How does that strike you as a somewhat less involved solution?
I'm sure, in the course of my exploration, i will find the amp input. All stereos have one (or more). I'll be sure to let you know about it.
But I'm more interested in the hack than the actual result. What do you expect from an EE. . .
By the way, congrats, genius, for not resizing that dumb car picture.
Originally posted by a_greer
Ford GT Need I say more
Ah... yes you may indeed say more. The rumored Corvette SS may attain 600 hp, which is more than the Z06 and the Ford GT...
On the Mustang it seems somewhat forgivable, given the price, the icon, and the nostalgia, but I wonder if my reaction isn't just relief that we finally don't have to look at the 80's and 90's variant's of that car.
The Mini too. Very nice, but very conventional interpretation of a classic. I want one, but is any of this really good design?