2005 Ferrari F430 Spider - No Horsing Around

Rounding out the install is an Orbital Extreme Duty deep cycle battery in the factory location and JL Audio speaker cable, interconnects and power cables throughout. And, of course, a hefty and thorough application of Dynamat. "The dynamic challenge was making a convertible sound like a tight sedan, while not taking away from the natural song the Ferrari makes," Shirley says. Even with the top down, Shirley's wishes were granted-and then some. Shirley would like to thank Rich Inferrera and his team at Rich's Car Tunes.

Peter Shirley isn't a newcomer to car audio. He started building systems at the age of 20 and now has six award-winning cars. When it came time to design the system for his '05 Ferrari F430 Spider, a vehicle intended for his own personal pleasure, he thought he'd try something different. "I thought the challenge of designing a system around an iPod in a convertible that could match the quality and exclusivity of the Ferrari name would present a great challenge," Shirley says. When he was ready to do the job, Shirley called up Rich's Car Tunes in Boston. "I gave them the guiding principles on what I wanted-some guidance on equipment and how it should be displayed-and let them run." And run they did.

First, there was the matter of a previously botched install. Shirley said that everything had to be fixed. "They did a terrible hack job on the car. The sub box was screwed into the car using sheetrock screws and one of them stuck through into the front, damaging the leather on the car seat. The wiring in the back looked like a 16-year-old's job. There were wires taped together without connectors." Needless to say, Rich's Car Tunes soon had it all corrected. They disassembled the interior entirely, as well as the compartment underhood. Doors were cleaned out in preparation for sound deadening, and pertinent leather was repaired.

Under Bonnet: An Alpine PDX-1.1000 powers the JL Audio 10W1 subwoofer while an Alpine PDX-4.150 sends channels one and two to the ADS 346CS 6.5" components in the front doors and three and four to the rear Alpine SPX-137R 5.25" midbass woofers. An Alpine PXA-H701 unit with Alpine RUXC701 controller shares the space with the two amps.

Speakers
Two sets of ADS 346CS 6.5" components were installed in the factory front door locations. Crossovers for the speakers are handled by the Alpine PXA-H701. Two Alpine SPX-137R 5.25" woofers were placed in the center stock location between the seats to manage to the lower midbass region.

Heart And Soul
The heart and soul of Shirley's system is, of course, his iPod. To match the vehicle, Shirley ordered a custom 80GB iPod from Colorware in Ferrari Red over Carbon Black. The iPod connects directly to the head unit, an Alpine iDA-X001, via a USB cable and stays hidden in the glovebox. "One of my goals," Shirley says, "was to be able to leave the car with the top down and not have anything visible that could be taken easily." Plus, having the iPod locked away makes for safer driving. Thankfully, the Alpine iDA-X001 was designed to be fully compatible with the iPod with menus that mirror Apple's popular little device. It was necessary for Car Tunes to create a new harness for the Alpine iDA-X001 because a previous installer mangled the factory one. The new custom harness was crafted to look as though Ferrari did it. Wiring was matched with Expando sleeving added for extra protection.

Amplification
The system in Shirley's Ferrari is devastatingly simple. No flashy video monitors, no extra weight, only two amps. The first, an Alpine PDX-1.1000, powers the JL Audio 10W1 subwoofer behind the passenger seat. The other, an Alpine PDX-4.150, sends channels one and two to the ADS 346CS 6.5" components in the front and three and four to the rear Alpine SPX-137R 5.25" midbass woofers.

Underhood (after all, it is a Ferrari) the amps sit flat on the floor in a triangular position with the Alpine PXA-H701 processor at the top. All three units are largely concealed by the under bonnet tray. The cover for the tray was done in factory Ferrari leather with both the F430 and Rich's Car Tune's logos embossed on it. "The tray is removable but also sturdy enough to place items like luggage in the bonnet without damaging the electronics," Shirley says.

For clean and proper imaging in a convertible, Rich's Car Tunes dialed in an Alpine PXA-H701 processor controlled by an Alpine RUX-C701. Both are housed together underhood.

Dash: Fresh and clean is the order of the day for this F430 Spider's dash. An Alpine iDA-X001 head unit pulls songs from a custom Colorware 80GB iPod via a USB cable. The Alpine iDA-X001 is fully compatible with the iPod, complete with menus that mirror that of Apple's popular little device. A custom harness was created for the Alpine iDA-X001 because the previous harness was ruined by a prior install.