Toyota Vios Turbo

Alpine IMPRINT Sound Processing

I have always been a noob when it comes to audio systems, especially in car entertainment systems. There would be days where you would just want to drive slow and enjoy the scene with some nice music playing through your audio system.

And this is the time where I would start to get really upset because the stock sound system from Toyota just plainly couldn't cut it. Add on with the vibration and wind noise coming in from all over the areas of the car, it makes you feel like you just want to drive to the nearest petrol station and torch the mutha fucking car.

So I drove to my audio guy and I told him I want all the vibration and wind noise gone from the car. Then for the next couple of months I learned new terms like Dynamat, chassis foaming, heat insulation, under body spray etc.

Great! So now that the car has a lot less vibration and wind sound, I can now crank up the volume and listen to some music right?

NOPE.

Instead of the singer's voice all that I could hear was her trying very hard to murmur something as though someone has shoved the damn microphone down her throat. Well, I couldn't quite make it whether its a microphone or a banana but yeah so much for the factory sound system.

I am determined to remove that damn microphone (or banana) from the singer's throat so I turned to my audio guy again and he recommended me this - Alpine IMPRINT.

In a nutshell, this is a technology which requires a microphone to be placed in six different locations inside the car, hook up the sound processor to a computer, closed all the doors and let the system tune itself out.

Alpine Imprint Audio Processor

Placement of the microphone

Measuring in progress

Measurements of all 6 locations completed

Frequency & Time Response Graph

(Before & After)

Think of this as a standalone engine management unit for your audio sound system if you will. You are able to tune every single channel and frequency there is available.

There are inherent acoustical challenges in every car and they are all different. For example, your window will deflect the sound produced by your speakers. The car's cushion will absorb some of it, couple it up with wind noise, cabin size and location of the speakers, the sound produced will not be optimal.

(Source: www.alpine.com)

Alpine's IMPRINT technology basically overcomes this by measuring the car cabin's acoustic response with a omni-directional microphone at 6 locations to provide time and frequency corrections. The end result is optimum sound quality regardless which location in the car you're sitting at.

I know there are still a lot of audio fanatics out there who still might not be able to accept this new way of tuning sound systems, however this technology has been around for some time and its not something new. Home theater audio systems has been using this technology for more than a decade, its only recently the technology has been made available to the automotive industry.

Alpine is not the only company that uses the MultEQ from sound technology giant Audyssesy in their Imprint architecture, Toshiba, IMAX, Onkyo, Denon, Integra, NAD, Marantz and Jaguar also uses their technology just to name a few.

I fired up a CD and I was in audio nirvana. It has a very nice wide sound stage and the clarity is amazing. I can now hear things I couldn't hear in my car before. With human effort it will take a lot more compared to the what the software can achieve in under 30 minutes, and the results won't probably come close.

Now I am a happy man because there isn't any banana or microphone stuck in anyone's throat anymore.

Chassis Foaming

One of the long due modifications that I've been wanting to do was chassis strengthening, and with the upcoming long holidays the timing was perfect for me to send in the car.

I left the car at the shop around 10.30 AM and collected it around 6 PM, this time I wasn't able to snap any pictures during the foaming process because I was away attending other matters. All that I was told is the A, B, C pillars and the entire undercarriage had work done to it and I was asked to give it a test run before settling my bill.

The car already had Dynamat insulation done to it previously, so I wasn't expecting any changes to the sound proofing but boy was I in for a surprise when I took the car out for a spin.

The cabin is a lot more quieter than before, and I was greeted with a soft "thud" instead of the usual loud "bang" when I went over road bumps. Somehow, the car actually felt softer. Also, body roll was reduced significantly.

Rather than writing a long grandmother story style review here this time, the advice I would give instead is to choose the shop that does the work for you carefully. Make sure you find someone who really knows the ins and outs of the whole thing including your car before committing.

Just trust me, it works.

I was told the foam will take a couple of days to fully harden and by that time I will be able to experience a lot more then what I'm going through now.

The foaming material that was used are imported directly from Germany, but unfortunately all that I could snap with my camera was this piece of foam that they kept on behalf of my request as I was curious to find out how it feels like and how it looks like.

Tough but yet light

With the chassis foaming now in place, what is left to be done will be the underbody spray on the fenders and some rubber strips to reduce the level of noise wind on the rear passenger doors and then we can pretty much be done with the sound proofing works.

At the same time if you're wondering whether I had my work done in a shop in KL with the word "Auto" and "Foam" associated with it, the answer is NO. Nothing personal against that shop, but I reserve my comments on the pricing and the material used.

Proton Exora Turbo - The Real Making

Universiti Putra Malaysia and Proton Holdings Berhad might have made some headlines by revealing the Proton Exora Turbo prototype couples months back earlier, well someone has just beaten them in producing an actual daily driven street car.

Here is a real making of a Proton Exora turbo inside the garage of GT Auto. The reason why this post is here is because this car will be running on the AEM Fuel/Ignition Controller (F/IC).

This unit is a very good alternative to the HKS F-Con iS, and if you are driving an OBD2 vehicle you will want to take a closer look at it as the unit is also capable of O2 remapping as well.

Besides the AEM F/IC and the HKS F-Con iS, another alternative way to tune OBD2 vehicles would be this or you can just go with a standalone engine management and lose your OBD2 compliance altogether.

That is all I can reveal here about this car and if you're curious to find out more about this Exora Turbo, talk to my friend Xenon or just point your browser to his site at CamproTurbo.com for more information.

Some of you might already know him as he drives a Proton Gen2 turbo himself. You have more reasons to talk to him especially if your car has a Campro engine and you have the intentions to fit in a turbo kit.

Stealth hidden intercooler

Close up shot of the intercooler

Engine bay

NCP42 Turbo Teaser Pictures

One of the things that I like about my hobby is not only that you'll make a lot of friends along the way, you get to inspire others to follow suite as well.

Here are some teaser pictures of a NCP42 Toyota Vios belonging to a close friend of mine, and is currently undergoing a turbo kit installation in GT Auto.

His setup is very similar to my current stage 1 turbo kit with some variances, and the car also has a AEM water/methanol injection kit fitted as well.

I don't want to sound like a broken record, but I just can't stop stressing how good it will be for the car if you can just fit a water/methanol injection kit to your ride, especially if its turbocharged.

In a couple of days this car will be rolling out from GT Auto's dyno machine, and we'll be seeing it huffing and puffing on the streets very soon.