Ultimate Listening Machine

After six months of designing, engineering, fabrication and approximately a half-million dollars, the Advanced Application and Research team comprised of Steve Brown and Mike Vu delivered another stunning vehicle to the show, the popular E53 platform of the BMW, known as the X5 Sports Activity Vehicle.

This year's iteration may seem more subtle without the crazy paint jobs seen in the past, but don't be fooled, this is definitely their best work to date. Would you expect anything less from them? Didn't think so...

With many of the ideas spawned from the last three cars, the current platform was perfect for what Alpine had in mind. Going back to their roots, they wanted a pure sound quality vehicle; and the vehicle they unveiled at CES this year was just that. They titled the X5 "The Ultimate Listening Machine" (ULM). That's no overstatement.

The ConceptBrown and Vu started this project by tearing everything out of the interior down to the bare metal. (BMW should've just delivered a vehicle without an interior!) The concept behind this year's demo vehicle was to evolve the overall design and fabrication ideas used in the past. There was no question that the X5 ULM would utilize the center-drive concept. This seating position provides the optimal setting for multi-channel listening. With the X5 having more interior room, a second seat was added directly behind the front center seat, a similar setup in a jet fighter cockpit. The second center seat sits a few inches higher than the front, emulating a true theater setup. Perhaps the Alpine demo cars will inspire manufacturers to produce more center-drive vehicles besides the McLaren.

With the center-drive concept being the third time the R&D has performed the conversion, they have learned a few things from the past. Instead of extending linkages, they used sprockets for the steering mechanism. This allowed them to use smaller gearing for the steering wheel, which is at full turn only a 90-degree angle either way, similar to a Formula 1 car. Lastly, the steering column was extended and placed in the center.

Next on the agenda was welding the doors on each side together. This 4-door SUV would now have only two doors, one long door on each side. After the doors were welded together, they were braced before the pillars were removed. Prior to the removal of the B-pillar, a roll cage was fabricated out of 2" x 4" square tubing to strengthen the frame. The doors are controlled remotely using two ball screw motors from a handicap lift. One motor is in the dash and the second is just behind the rear seat.

The doors slide out approximately 27" on each side. When in the "out" position, the driver's side door pulls the front seat to the normal position and the passenger side door pulls the second seat to the normal rear seat position. "In a center drive vehicle, you oftentimes have to climb over to the seat. We wanted to eliminate that this time. Having the seats in these positions with the doors out makes getting in and out of the vehicle a lot easier," states Brown.

Interior faceliftAlpine F#1 Status components are used throughout the system. With the entire interior receiving a facelift, the R&D team was able to build the interior around the system. This time around, they did not exclusively use paint as a finish. They incorporated other materials such as leather, Ultrasuede and metal accents throughout the vehicle.

Starting up in the dash, a pair of Alpine SWX-1022D 10" subwoofers was mounted in 1/2ft3 sealed enclosure (each), on either side of the dash. In the center is one half of the SPX-Z15M 2-way single-channel component speaker set (creating the center channel). Alpine SPX-Z18T 3-way components anchor the front stage. The woofer from the set is installed to the far left and right of the dash, each in its own sealed enclosure. The midrange and tweeter is installed in the A-pillar. The fabricated enclosure actually resides outside of the vehicle and looks like a side view mirror. With the extension of the enclosure, the width of the soundstage is increased. An actual side view mirror was mounted to both enclosures.

The heart of the system is an Alpine F#1 Status DVI-9990 DVD-Audio/CD tuner. It should be known that the DVI-9990 is the first DVD-Audio player to transmit full DVD-Audio through Alpine's own DVD-Audio Link optical connection. This allows for full DVD-A resolution. The unit is mounted in a custom-fabricated steering wheel. Above the radio is the key cylinder while below it is an electronic shifter. Two stalks wrapped in leather on the left and right side of the wheel are what you use for steering.

The overhead console holds two TME-M770 6.5-inch touchscreen monitors and two Defi gauges provided by EDO. The gauges display all of the vehicle's vitals such as temperature, oil pressure, tachometer and speedometer. A second display mounted in front of the center channel displays the speedometer on the windshield.

Most of the audio components are found in the rear or hatch area. The processors for the system are two Alpine PXI-H990 Mult-media Managers. Both provide 16 channels of discrete output for the system and are mounted in the fabricated rear console. Below the processors are six MRV-F900 4-channel amplifiers. The rear stage is made up of two SPX-Z15M speakers installed in the rear left and right pillars. Another set is used for the rear center channel. This is installed in the rear console as well and faces forward. The system also incorporates the KCA-500B IONBUS to Ai-NET bus connector. This unit allows for the connection of the SIR-ALP1 Sirius Satellite Radio tuner box. When viewing the pictures, you will notice that all of the speakers in the vehicle are surrounded with Ultrasuede.

Exterior FaceliftBrown and Vu did not stop with at the interior. They also showed off their craftsmanship on the exterior of the vehicle. Along with the addition of aftermarket front and rear bumpers, the team fabricated their own wide body kit since there are none available for purchase. All were molded seamlessly together giving the X5 ULM a "brute" stance. When completed, the guys were not pleased with how the hood looked so they changed that as well. Airbrushed onto the sides of the X5 ULM are musical icons from the last century courtesy of Noah. The side skirts, which are molded to the front and rear wheel arches now boast an Alpine F#1 Status Logo and custom exhaust pipe on both sides of the vehicle. The front bumper displays a backlit Alpine logo.

In a unique twist, the rear window in this vehicle is enlarged with a 1/4" piece of acrylic extending over the amplifiers and processors. It is sealed shut. The enlarged window allows onlookers to peer inside at anytime to see the system, even while a sound demonstration is being performed. "Everyone can enjoy the vehicle even if there are people inside", explains Vu. To complement the new wide body kit are 26" KMC custom-machined wheels. The wheels were made for the X5 ULM and the only ones in existence. The front wheels are 26" x 10" and the rear are 26" x 12". The lips on the wheels are 5" and 7" respectively. Race Technologies provided their expertise in getting a Brembo Big Brake Kit fitted the massive wheels.

Now What?As of press, Michael Vu is leaving Alpine Electronics to pursue another personal dream of his. With the departure of Vu, the tag team is not complete. Although it won't be an easy task, Alpine will be looking to find someone just as talented. Good luck, Mike!

So what's in store for next year? We seem to ask that question every year, but Brown is confident about the next project. "I already thought about it two years ago," explains Brown. Well if that's the case, what will we see in 2007? "You'll just have to wait and see," laughs Brown.

"We had the idea for this vehicle long before the MINI ever came out. The concept was to take the center drive idea and evolve it into a vehicle that would provide two people the ultimate in-car listening experience. Most people don't know that we usually work two cars out, meaning we have the ideas for our next two cars while we're working on the current one. We just make sure not to tell anyone about it."

"We've had 250 pound guys in both seats, and they move just as well as if they are empty. In addition, this is the best sounding car I've ever heard in all my years of car audio. It really does things that you don't hear in other cars."

"I've got several cars in my head; it just depends upon how much time and money we get [for next year]. Whatever we build will definitely be something to check out."-- Steve Brown

"We figured that once we've done the center drive thing we couldn't go back, so we decided that if one seat was good, two would be even better. What a lot of people don't realize is that we had so many ideas that didn't make it on the MINI, that we had enough ideas to last us one or two more cars. And as time goes by more ideas come up and so on... so you can see that in our minds the MINI was already topped before it was even done."

"One thing that we always seem to do is that everything we build must be symmetrical. One side of the car has to look like the other. We only had one unit to display, so the only choice we had was to put it in the middle. And what better place to put it than in the steering wheel, since it hasn't been done yet? The coolest part about the steering wheel is that the head unit is stationary and the wheel moves around it. We also mounted the key cylinder and the electronic shifter knob in the steering wheel. The steering wheel was also geared down so that you only have to turn it a quarter of the way to full steering lock."--Mike Vu