Total CarAudio – the in-car entertainment magazine feb/mar 04 Beetle Juiced Accutek’s new Beetle not only beats top DJ Fergie’s own Merc install, it embarrasses some of the venues he’s played at too… Words: Paul Rigby Photos: Dave Woodall Fergie – no, not that one the top electro, breakbeat DJ who has an 11 pm- 1am Friday slot on Radio One, is itching to get his hands on the newly modified Beetle from Accutek. He’s heard a lot about it and wants, CDs clasped in hand, to explore this four wheeled adventure in sound. Fergie’s whole show is one of adventure. Plugging into Dance’s current underground of breakbeats and electro, this Irishman coming from Larne near Belfast broke onto the Radio One scene after favourable Essential Mix slots on Radio One in the company of that steel wheel superstar, Carl Cox. Now he has burst onto the commercial scene, however, he’s still determined to stick to his beliefs. The show format reinforces that: “The first hour of the show reflects music I like and what I think will become popular. The last hour or so is tailored to what I play in the clubs.” Despite his constant touring in the likes of Germany, South Africa and, now, the US, the elevation to stardom is still a bit of a shock: “This all started as a bit of a laugh to begin with; I’d never been on the radio before - I never thought I’d get on hospital radio, never mind Radio One it was a bit of a mad one that.” Another mad one rolls up in front of the expectant Fergie a Beetle. Not any old Beetle, oh no, this one has had the Accutek treatment. Accutek was set up by both Stuart Crombie and Chris Payne in 1998 in Kings Worthy, Winchester. Specialising in supplying and installing car audio and visual systems as well as security and navigation systems, they also have a repair and service department. Fergie is intrigued by the Beetle, especially as he’s used to Mercedes: “I have a Mercedes 320 - before we bought it though, we actually test drove a BMW 7 Series, a long wheelbase 450. At the time they were £50k and this guy offered one to me for £40k. Petrol was the problem it just guzzled it but what a car, the thing talks to you. In the Mercedes I have the standard hi fi but I’ve added a Clarion DVD player with screen and a SatNav system.” Oh yes the SatNav system. Look, just don’t ask him about this thing; it was never a match made in heaven: “It’s been punched a few times.” You see? “You might put some roads in there and they don’t come up.” Fergie, however. has plenty of time to punch the living daylights out of his car because he never drives it: “I can’t! I have a driver. In fact, I’ve just bought a house in Stratford and it’s a quite quiet there so I’ll eventually get around to learning. Actually, I initially bought a second hand Mercedes 300 and I drove it out one night, with my mates, and smashed it. So I learnt my lesson.” Over his punishing Christmas schedule, however, Fergie needed a steady car. He had a live Radio One show from the King’s Hall in Belfast on Boxing Day, then he headed to Cream in Liverpool “which I’ve never done before,” he admits. Next day it was over to Scotland and then came the trip to Dublin for another show. Accutek’s Stuart Crombie beams and says nothing, he just opens all the doors and the boot and lets the hardware do the talking. Bathed in an eerie blue incandescent light is the source unit. A Becker Traffic Pro navigation system. In the front end are 6.5 inch Phoenix Gold Elite speakers with a crossover in the passenger door build, blue neon cable installed to both doors and in the rear end a set of 6.5 inch Phoenix Gold Tantrum coaxial speakers in the original location. “I hope I’m not supposed to remember all of this am I?” asks a slightly worried Fergie, grabbing for a pencil and paper. There are nods all around: “S’pose I'd better write it all down then,” says Fergie, scribbling away before exclaiming: “Unbelievable, it's rockin’.” Opening the boot reveals a 15 inch Phoenix Gold Titanium subwoofer in fibreglass moulded enclosure, one Phoenix Gold Tantrum T400.4 amplifier running four channels (front and rear), one Phoenix Gold Tantrum T300.2 amplifier running mono to the subwoofer, two voltage displays, one Phoenix Gold 1 farad capacitor and two Phoenix Gold power distribution blocks modified with ultra bright blue LEDs. It’s truly surprising that this little lot only tips the scales at £6000 all in. Fergie’s gaze says it all: “It's not practical for storage in the boot but it looks good even the door crossover looks nice. The whole thing’s really cool looking.” That’s half the point, we suppose, because it does! Nothing crass just lotsa class, and the Beetle itself helps. “We actually chose the Beetle as we hadn’t seen a Beetle with an audio system installed,” expands Stuart. Fortunately, the car submitted to Accutek’s prodding like butter under the hand “The car design reacted very well with the system installed but we had to fully fit the car with Dynamat sound deadening material.” There was a slight difficulty though: “Moulding the boot with glass fibre for the subwoofer enclosure was a slight problem, as it had to be removable in order to be able to return the car back to standard.” Stuart sees the Beetle as a new avenue for modified cars and thinks they have some potential as a chassis: “Anything is possible in the new Beetle, it all depends what your budget is… We have always been able to produce good bass in new and old Beetle. Stuart should know too “I have a mini 1971 Beetle which will possibly be our next project.” The system has been set up to present a wide sound stage at the front of the car. What that basically means is that if you close your eyes you can pretend the artists are actually playing in front of you. There will be more speakers added to the frontal area and some changes to the doors because Accutek is going to present it as a competition car later on, yet the system ‘as is’ is still more than a handful. Fergie whisked out his Leftfield’s class debut and a new track from his own Rubik production. What, no DJ compilation? Fergie, is a little concerned about the standard Dj compilation and feels that he needs to establish a few ground rules before he launches into a new compilation deal. The current problem he believes is that “labels want to sell units and to do that they want big artists on there. Well, I don’t buy their records so why should I have them on my CD? The people who come first are the people who come to see me at gigs and support my career. They will want to know that I’m putting a track an a CD for a reason. If it's just to sell the CD then people don’t like that. That’s selling yourself and your fans short. “The music that I’m into now has more of an underground feel to it – that’s where the whole scene has to go back to. Clubbing was always a rebellious thing, listening to Djs and records you couldn’t hear in the charts. It’s got to get back to that. The only people who can change that is the Djs.” Fergie jumps into the car and pumps up the volume with that thought still jangling: “It’d be great so have the volume up on the way to a gig – although it’d be down on the way back! You couldn’t sleep in it – that’s for sure. The car’s vibrating you wouldn’t need a massage, the car does it for you. The hi fi’s totally rocking the seats.” However, for sheer sound quality, the Accutek system build was one Fergie appreciated to the full: “It sounds a lot better in this car that it does in mine – that’s for certain!” he shouts over the racket. “It sounds different from what I’ve heard in a studio, although this is like being in a studio of a sort. It has a clarity of its own and doesn’t distort at all. The sound is very well balanced, it’s very ‘surround’ and comes at you from all angles. The system is actually better than some of the clubs I’ve gigged in.” He pauses a little to let Leftfield’s dreaded bass sink into his soul: “It’d be great to have a monitor system like this in a club with me – it’s unbelievable!” Fergie reflects on his Beetle experience with the real music over, yet still ringing in our ears: “The only system I’ve heard that rivals this is Tim Westwood’s, in the back of his truck. Keeping it real, he says. However, now I’ve heard this system, I think I’ll be looking to upgrade my own.” SHOPPING LIST Becker Traffic Pro head unit . . . . . . . . . . . . £1050 Phoenix Gold Titanium Ti6 speakers . . . . . . £799 Phoenix Gold Tantrum coaxial speakers . . . £129 Phoenix Gold subwoofer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £249 Phoenix Gold Tantrum T440.4 amp . . . . . . £449 Phoenix Gold Tantrum T300.2 amp . . . . . . £349 Phoenix Gold Tantrum neons . . . . . . . . . . . £39 2 x Phoenix Gold Titanium displays . . . . . . £60 each Phoenix Gold power cap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £185 Phoenix Gold fuses and cables . . . . . . . . . £633 Dynamat sound deadening . . . . . . . . . . . . £189 Alcantara trim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £250 Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £4441
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