[Mini] Clubman 2008 JCW

marcelomoti · 18 de Fevereiro de 2014

2008 Mini Clubman JCW - Simplicity in Sound

It’s very satisfying for a shop to have happy clients that bring their other vehicles for customization. That’s what the owner of this Clubman you see here did. He had had an E55AMG wagon done by SiS the previous year and wanted a sound quality system for his other ride. The Clubman JCW is a stoutly modified Mini with an upgraded turbo and other performance goodies, like suspension and other drive train mods, along with a Euro spec Recaro seat. It had everything but audio to match.

The owner and SiS wanted to achieve a nice level of sound quality while retaining the stock headunit (non amplified system); maintain a low-key appearance throughout the interior (this means despite a big tweeter, to keep it relative subdued and recessed); keep everything in the spare tire well and maintain the lower floor height; and as he listens to almost everything from his phone, integrate the Mosconi upfront controller and AMAS high resolution Bluetooth streaming device into the build.

First up was the battery and a secure fuse holder mounting. SiS’ Joey Knapp located a spot on the firewall that was empty and fabricated a metal bracket. He then installed two rivet nuts and bolted the bracket in place to test it. The bracket was then painted and the fuse holder installed and wired up.

With the OEM nav in place they decided to keep the stock signal source. With the Mosconi AMAS BT streaming device, the owner is able to stream high resolution files right front his phone to the DAC of the DSP. But in order to have master volume control, SiS needed to somehow integrate the Mosconi DSP controller into the mix. A normal stock Mini dash does not offer a whole lot of real estate. So Joey took the Mosconi controller out of its casing, fabricated a custom mount from acrylic and painted it. This sits at the bottom of the center stack and the previously located stock aux/and USB tab is now relocated to below the controller. It is facing up and easily within reach of the driver.

For this mod, the center stack fascia was removed and a piece of acrylic was cut and bent into the desired shape. It was then back filled and molded to the area where it would reside. Then the controller was taken apart and the board was test-fitted to the acrylic piece. Using a metal rod bent for rigidity, Joey then attached a portion of stock aux and USB input panel to the acrylic piece and epoxied it all together. The attachment spacers for the controller board were then molded into the acrylic and some final blending and sanding took place. Finally, the entire piece was painted and textured.

Now the highlight of install, the front stage with the custom A-pillars showcasing the Morel Piccolo tweeters. The customer really enjoyed the way the Morels sounded in his Mercedes, so SiS decided to do something similar for this car. With the short and wide A pillar design, and the fact that the car’s interior is already full of shiny round shapes, the guys felt the Morel Supremo Piccolo would be a nice tweeter choice. The goal was still to keep them as recessed as possible, so they are aimed more off-axis. The new pillars are wrapped in factory matching vinyl.

marcelomoti · 18 de Fevereiro de 2014

Here’s the build for the front stage.

First, the rings were fabricated, aimed and attached to the factor pillar. Next mold cloth was pulled, resin applied, allowed to cure, and the pods reinforced from the inside via a resin/filler mixture. The entire shape got a liberal amounts of filler and sanded smooth. Factory matching vinyl was then used to wrap them and the Piccolos were installed.

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The woofers are the Morel Elate MW6. For this part of the install, new wires were run into the door and the door panel was treated to a bit of sound proofing. The outer door panel got a bit of CLD coverage as well. Next a set of spacer rings were fabricated, pre-drilled, and coated with several layers of truck bedliner. The Morel Elate midbass was then wired up and installed.

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The same process was then repeated on the passenger side, here you can see the speaker wire running through factory Molex and conduit.

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