Brighton Rocks

At first site, this car is a work of art.

Brighton Rocks

It’s a beautiful sunny September day in Brighton and I am cruising up Madeira Drive looking for the car of my dreams. I spot it, a stunning orange Lamborghini Murcielago. I park immediately behind it and head off to find the owner, Adrian Corrigall in a nearby cafe.

Commercial diver Adrian spends his working days under water maintaining oil wells in the North Sea - a career not without its hazards. It is however, rewarding work both in terms of a decent salary and plenty of time off. Adrian enjoys a profound love of music influenced by early exposure to his older brother’s collection of 80’s vinyl and esoteric hi-fi and his and my shared dislike for factory fitted car stereo is what brought us together on this day.

I will leave Adrian to tell his story as it was emailed to me some months before:

"I have a problem with my new car audio system. Every now and again I have to turn it down and sit listening intently to the engine and wonder, what was that odd noise? The noises I have been hearing lately are the quietly strum background guitar or bass beat you simply just do not hear on an average audio system. Interestingly, I am hearing these on tracks I have listened to a hundred times!

So why put an expensive new stereo system in a super car with a 6.2 litre V12 engine blasting through the cabin? Good question but if you love music, you love driving to music and to be honest, a good proportion of your time in the car will be spent driving slowly or stopped at lights. It's at these times the right track playing through the right system keeps the buzz going even when the engine is just purring.

Being a bit of an obsessive I began an internet hunt to see exactly what could be done to achieve the clean look of a factory fit stereo but with the quality of an audiophile system.

The name of a local installer kept cropping up and the feedback was positively gushing about this chap and his skills. Fortuitously, he also happened to sell the unit I was most interested in, a Pioneer DEX-P99PRS. A quick drive to Worthing in the family car and a very nice chap appeared who began to talk to me in another language. Noticing the slightly agape mouth and blank eyes he thankfully reverted to English and thus I had met Jeremy Owen, owner of FOUR MASTER, Highdown Car Audio and Security.

Jeremy showed no signs of being overawed when I told him what car I drove, which actually filled me with confidence. Jeremy offered a number of alternatives to the unit I had set my mind on and I headed home with a head full of information, questions, research to do, copies of brochures and of course Driving Sounds Magazine.

I ploughed through this new resource but kept coming back to the single DIN Pioneer unit that had originally grabbed my attention. It looked right and of course audio-wise is considered absolutely top-class (Driving Sounds also happened to be running a feature on a chap with one installed in his classic Porsche!). Jeremy had also been doing his homework and a few e-mails back and forth with shots of various units in Murcielagos he agreed that to achieve what we wanted the Pioneer was the way to go. A date to fit was arranged.

In a short period of time Jeremy's sheer weight of knowledge, endless enthusiasm (both for his subject and life) had instilled in me a huge amount of good faith and when the day came to hand over my car I felt 100% confident I had made a good decision. Of course, little was I to know we had only just started.

Once they saw the vehicle Highdown realised this was no time for half a job. A complete system would need to be fitted that would do the vehicle justice and be audible over the roar of the engine. After further discussion, we agreed to install something a little bit special. I wanted a minimalist look in keeping with the vehicle yet a system that would rock my socks off.

I honestly had no idea what I was about to receive. Panels began to pop off, suggestions were made for new panels, lights and all manner of clever ways to both conceal and of course reveal. I left that day daunted yet hugely excited at what I now realised was possible.

I picked the car up after a week and I am still amazed at what Highdown managed to achieve in that time. Not only have they built a custom subwoofer box behind the driver’s seat but also subtle tweeter mounts on the dashboard, re fabricated and sprayed a centre console to match the head unit, created a custom box for the amplifier in the boot complete with lights then promptly built a cover including an official Lamborghini badge sourced from ebay to place over the lot. This final cover is so well made that at a recent supercar meet a fellow owner commented on it and I am not sure he believed me when I told him a bloke in Worthing made it!

I am still due my second tune up after running the speakers in for a bit but the joy of blasting out Kasabian or the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on a sunny day and hearing all the new detail on tracks I thought I previously knew is still absolutely fantastic. The sound is so full of clarity with speakers able to take the bass of a Massive Attack track as well as the finesse of a John Barry CD. My musical tastes are incredibly eclectic and I will happily listen to anything from classical to thrash metal in one car journey. It's all about the mood.”

Readers of previous issues of Driving Sounds will know that I have absolute faith and belief in car audio specialists and FOUR MASTERS in particular. Having heard the frightening lows that the engine throws out, I was concerned that their work may be a little too refined to cope but I needn’t have worried. Massive Attack’s Angel built to a pleasing climax and the bass remained controlled and musical even at high levels. The image played wide and deep with the all-important relentless snare drum playing out of the centre air vents. ‘Lovely Head’ from Goldfrapp’s ‘Felt Mountain’ showed similar articulation at high level as well as previously unnoticed instrument separation. A solo acoustic guitar piece by Clive Carroll called ‘The Kid From Clare Set’ demonstrated superfast attack and the decay of each note could be heard all the way down to zero - no mean feat in this car. Finally, I played a Steely Dan track ‘Peg’ from the digitally re-mastered ‘Greatest Hits’ album. The drum track sounded so tight and the sound balance throughout is worthy of a tightrope walker.

Jeremy at Highdown has done an excellent job in finding a set up which works across many musical styles. It is not often I get to sit in a genuine supercar and the thrill was only enhanced by hearing some of my favourite speakers attached to one of my favourite amplifiers and answering the question; do these products work well together? – Hell yes, I say.

There is no doubt that Adrian is a car audio and FOUR MASTER convert. He closed his email to me with the following comment; “I feel very lucky to have met the team at Highdown and especially Jeremy. They really did do a great job for me and put in 100% effort for which I thoroughly applaud them."

Top Five Driving Sounds

 Portishead 'Roads'

 David Bowie 'Life On Mars'

 Kasabian 'Fast Fuse'

 Massive Attack 'Angel'

 Jack White 'I'm Shakin'

Audio Expert System:

Pioneer DEX-P99PRS -Source Unit

Audison AV5.1K (Class A/AB & D) amplifier

Hertz Mille ML1600 Mid-bass

Hertz Mille ML280 Tweeters

Hertz Hi Energy HX250 10" Dual 4 ohm Subwoofer