In Search Of Dancing Horses

Ferraris from different eras get the audio upgrade treatment

In Search of Dancing Horses

These two contrasting cars have similarly, contrasting reasons for ownership. Balls-out performance versus boyhood dream. One owner wants a Formula One car dressed for the road, while the other is attracted by the style, finesse and eye-catching good looks as well as an engaging out of the ordinary drive. But, what do they have in common? Both owners enjoy music and have replaced the factory fitted systems in order to enjoy better sounds. After all, for a music lover it can seem as much of a travesty to fit a £500,000 car with anything less than a FOUR MASTERS Expert system as it can for the purist to consider changing anything on their factory condition motor.

If pushed, both owners would accept the analogy between optimising the performance of a car to that of optimising a performance on stage or in a recording studio. Both require dedication, specialist equipment and years of hard work.

A luthier for instance may travel the world to find just the right slice of wood from the right tree to use for the sound board of his hand-built instruments just as Ferrari may spend years looking for the right metal alloy to use in a vital component in its cars. Similarly, luthiers will know, through experience and skill, which attributes of their instruments will be able to make a musician smile and his audience cry whilst the car designers will have the same feel for the drop-dead gorgeous good looks which compel a car fanatic to stare wistfully at a car for hours and even buy a print of it for the wall of their home!

The analogy could be expanded to describe the years of learning and practice that go into making a great driver and equally, a great musician.

F50 – Gunmetal Grey

The F50 was introduced in 1995 to celebrate the company's 50th anniversary. This £500,000 beast has a 4.7 litre naturally aspirated 60-valve V12 engine that was developed from the 3.5 litre V12 used in the 1992 Ferrari F92A Formula One car. Capable of accelerating from 0-60 MPH in 3.7 secs and then reversing the process from 60 -0 MPH within 36 meters it will also career along at a top speed of 202 mph. One of the key features of such a car is the noise it makes. Although, a product of the blistering performance it surely adds to the excitement of the drive. The car is also roof-free and therefore a powerful audio system is required if only to hear the traffic reports above the noise. However, the owner of this car appreciates his music which is why he has had a FOUR MASTER add an amplifier and upgrade the door speakers whilst adding separate tweeters in the bulkhead behind the seats as well as a powerful subwoofer in the passenger foot well. We could not guarantee that this would provide Hi-fi as we know it, with the engine at full chat, but for “crawling” around at the national speed limit, the system offers a vast improvement on the standard equipment in terms of both volume and musicality.

The FOUR MASTER has made all of his modifications behind the existing carbon fibre door panels. The exception is a 10” sub woofer, built into a custom carbon fibre enclosure, which has been left on show as it matched in very well with the rest of the carbon fibre on-board and also because there is literally nowhere else to put it!

Top 5 Tracks

Ace of spades – Motor Head

U2 - Beautiful Day

Nerd - Rock Star

Faithless - We come one

Verve - Bittersweet symphony


Car Audio Upgrades Made Easy

Find out what our partner, The FOUR MASTER Network, can do to bring Hi-Fi quality to your car. Simply put some brief details into the form below.

Not ready for that yet? You can use the same form to book a demonstration at your home, place of work or with your local FOUR MASTER

FOUR MASTERS CAR AUDIO