The answer: 16! How do we know this? We know about what Bazooka did in the reconstruction of this '90 Honda CRX Si. Craig Romero, technical director for SAS/Bazooka Mobile Audio in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, owned the vehicle when the massive amount of work was done to it. Today, rap star C. Murder, younger brother of Master P., owns the car and wreaks the pleasure resulting from Bazooka's experiment .
No surprise, too, that Bazooka still uses the car as a demonstration vehicle at such trade shows as the Consumer Electronics Show and such consumer events as Spring Break Nationals and other car shows. There is plenty of sizzle to go along with the bang. Modifications were performed on the exterior of the vehicle, engine and suspension. Romero and an assistant did all of the work at the Bazooka factory in Baton Rouge.
To create the outward appearance that was sure to attract attention, modifications were done on the exterior of the vehicle. These mods included the shaving of the antenna and its relocation on the sunroof, the shaving of the rear window wiper arm, and new ground effects from Kaminari. The body was painted with paint supplied by Dimont and the work was done at Carcrest's paint booth in Baton Rouge. Engine mods included a whole new exhaust system from Toucan Industries. This includes new two-piece ceramic covered headers and stainless steel muffler.
The suspension was changed, too. There are new adjustable coil-overs and Euro coils from Ractive. The suspension revisions lowered the car 21/2-inches in back and 13/4-inches in front. The factory wheels which may have caused the zealot car enthusiasts to yawn were exchanged for 17x7 Motegi MR8 wheels.
The interior of the car was not spared of changes. The factory seats were replaced with fiberglass racing bucket seats from NEX. The dashboard was reconstructed to include 70/75 aircraft aluminum as trim around the instruments, audio equipment in the dash and around the air conditioner controls. A support bar made of 11/2-inch steel tubing runs from the trunk up to the roof. A lot of welding work was performed in the construction of this reinforcing beam. Why the beam? 150-plus dB of bass can cause a lot of structural damage to sheet metal, don't you know.
The sunroof was also altered. The headliner of the sunroof was reconstructed out of fiberglass. "An exact copy of the sunroof was made without the hole," commented Romero. Why this was done will become apparent in a moment. The reason for the removal of the back seat will also be revealed.
When all is said and done, the express purpose of the audio system in this car is to show off the new Bazooka T1 triangle subwoofers. The cone area of these subs measure about 9 inches and is made of a poly-coated paper. The basket is fabricated of stamped steel and the driver features a 40-ounce motor structure, 40-ounce magnet, 2-inch voice coil and the assembly is liquid cooled. Each driver weighs about 20 pounds.
The source unit for the audio system is a Sony CDX-C90 AM/FM/CD player with CD changer controls. The unit has 18 FM and 12 AM presets, station memo that allows the user to assign an eight character name to a station and Best Tuning Memory, which allows the tuner to select a radio station by signal strength and assign it to presets.
Other features include Custom File, which is effective source management for an audio and audio-video system; CD text; and Electronic Shock Protection (ESP), an electronic circuit that stores the audio data stream from a CD or MiniDisc in a memory buffer so if the laser pick-up mistracks, audio still flows from the buffer preventing an interruption. The unit also has a digital output and a separate output to drive the subwoofers. The unit can control a CD changer, MiniDisc changer or DSP processor, and comes with a wired and wireless remote control.
Mounted in the dash under the CD player is an AudioControl 3.1 in-dash four-band stereo graphic equalizer with Para-BASS, a four-channel, two-way electronic crossover with a 24 dB per octave slope, and a 13-volt peak line driver. The unit includes a subwoofer level control, front and rear fader, balanced differential inputs and outputs for maximum noise rejection, and a master volume control.
To boost the signal from the source unit even higher, two AudioControl Matrix six-channel line drivers are included and mounted to the re-vamped sunroof. Special brackets were forged in order to accommodate these units. The Matrix offers six channels of input and output and 24 dB signal gain or 13 volts peak output. The unit also includes 12 dB of signal attenuation, PFM subsonic filter, output level controls and voltage indicator LEDs.
Ten Bazooka EL2100 two-channel amplifiers work the system. Each amplifier delivers 100 watts of power per channel. Eight of the amplifiers are driving the 16 Bazooka T1 triangle subwoofers and the remaining two EL2100s are playing the mids and highs. The amplifiers are mounted to the support bar that runs from the trunk to the roof.
Each door holds a Bazooka 6-inch coaxial speaker in the factory opening. According to Romero, the window cranking system hit on the speaker after the door panel was raised a little. So the cranking system was removed and replaced with a power window system. Pre-fabricated kick panels from Ractive hold a Bazooka 6-inch midrange speaker and 1-inch tweeter. Made of molded ABS, the kick panels are specially fabricated for Honda CRX and Civics.
The enclosure that holds the 16 Bazooka T1 subwoofers is actually two sealed enclosures with a 4-inch fill in panel in the middle of the two boxes. It was constructed in this fashion so that it can be removed from the vehicle. Romero said that one person can easily remove a box. There are eight woofers per enclosure. The boxes are made of medium density fiberboard and fiberglass.
Romero explained that he wanted to get as much air space for the subwoofers out of the car as possible. So he used every nook and cranny in the car by fiberglassing the bottom of the enclosure and molding it directly to the car's body panels. The process increased the strength of the box. It is stronger at the bottom and also offers a lot more room for the drivers.
Eight 1/2-farad capacitors from Monster Cable ensures that there is continuous power flow to the amplifiers. They are molded into the enclosure. Moreover, the distribution system was hand crafted out of aluminum and contains 10 fuses. Also, 1-gauge cable carries power from a Optima Yellow Top battery under the hood to the distribution system and 10-gauge cable carries the power from the distribution system to the amplifiers. Romero pointed out that the run from the distribution system to the amplifiers is only 4 feet so small 10-gauge cable could be used. A power supply from Ashtron is included so that the audio system can be plugged into a wall socket and bang away for an entire day.
Time was a restraint in the construction of the car. According to Romero, the whole project took only one month. That's two guys working on weekends and five hours a night. Although the system has not been measured officially by a meter, Romero estimated that it can burst out SPL in the 150 range.