FEATURES
Under The Radar
By Mike Sanchez/ Photos By Steve Sawitz
Posted on Wednesday, Sep 1, 2004

Photo by Steve Sawitz

Bon Sum worked long and hard to put enough scratch together to buy his very own car. While he put in the hours at a local JC Penny warehouse, he dreamed of having a ride that would turn heads — the right heads. The Long Beach, CA, native says that in his neighborhood, a bangin’ car attracts the attention of all the girls, but an over-the-top, 2 Fast 2 Furious-type of vessel is a straight-up cop magnet. When Bon finally bought his red 2001 Honda Civic, he was determined to completely max it out, while keeping it subtle and clean.

Thai Nguyen was introduced to car audio by his younger brother, Thang, in the mid ‘90’s — they put a radio in Thai’s Acura and they went from there. They read all the magazines and went to all the shows. They acquired equipment and knowledge. In degrees, the Acura got faster and cooler. They collected IASCA and USAC trophies. They dreamed of opening up a shop one day. After Thang unexpectedly passed away in 1996, Thai walked away from his grocery industry job of 11 years. He found a good location in Fountain Valley, CA, and opened Serenity Sound — a living tribute to his brother. At Serenity, Thai would take people’s cars and completely max them out, while keeping them subtle and clean.

Sum and Nguyen met 1-1/2 years ago at an NHRA drag race in Pomona, CA. Nguyen was showcasing some of the vehicles his Serenity team had built. Sum and his friends liked what they saw and peppered Nguyen with questions. A week later, Sum arrived at Serenity ready to talk turkey.

“I sat Bon down and asked him exactly what he wanted to do with his Civic,” Nguyen explains. “He wanted it to be really nice and clean — kind of a factory look. He wanted something different, but nothing to gaudy or too far out. So I made some suggestions.”

Since Sum was on a limited budget and wanted the most bang for his buck, Nguyen suggested they take their time with the project.

Photo by Steve Sawitz

The first thing that they installed was an AEM short ram intake system. For a relatively low price, the intake provides extra horsepower and sounds really cool. A few weeks later, Thai’s team lowered the vehicle two inches using Progress Sport lowering springs.

“Most people aren’t able to hand you $10,000 right off the bat,” Nguyen says. “In cases like Bon’s, I recommend the smaller stuff that’s going to make the biggest difference. An intake costs anywhere from $175 to $250, but it makes a big difference. It looks really good under the hood and it adds lots of horsepower. The same idea is true with the suspension system.”

To deal with the added horsepower and improved cornering control, Nguyen installed some high-quality AEM brakes and pads. After considering several options, Nguyen went straight to the source for a no-nonsense body kit.

“For the body kit, we used a Honda factory kit,” he explains. “This way, we knew it was going to fit perfectly. It gave us some nice, clean lines. I chose the kit because it fit in with my master plan. I like to research and figure out what product works best with a particular vehicle. It’s not always about how much money you have or how crazy you want to get. It’s usually about product selection and planning — that goes for sound and performance. After careful consideration, I take it one step at a time according to the original plan. I definitely put a car together in my mind long before we get out any tools. We try to plan it well enough to minimize any unforeseeable problems during installation.”

Other aggressive, yet subtle, performance enhancements include, 5Zigen/ProRacer GN+ wheels on 18-inch Hankook Ventus HRII tires, a TC Sportline carbon fiber hood, Liteglow underbody lighting, 7000k HID headlight bulbs, a Progress 22-mm rear sway bar, Koni adjustable strut inserts, a DC Sports strut tower brace, a DC Sports ceramic 4-into-1 header, and a DC Sports stainless steel catback exhaust system.

Photo by Steve Sawitz

From there, they started working on the interior. To match the bright red exterior of the car, Nguyen used an aggressive black and red synthetic carbon fiber vinyl on the door panels, on the front and rear seats, and around the shift knob. He also installed a Tora Sport carbon fiber dash kit. For a source unit, Sum and Nguyen chose the Panasonic CQ1003 7-inch in-dash CD/DVD/MP3/TV tuner. In keeping with the cost-conscious theme of the install — rather than buy four medium-grade speakers for the front and rear — they installed a pair of high-quality Boston Acoustics Pro Series 6.5-inch separates in the front door panels. They permanently trashed the 6 x 9s in the rear. Next, they built a fiberglass subwooofer enclosure in the trunk and accented it with the same black and red synthetic carbon fiber vinyl from the interior. Finally, they dropped two Image Dynamics IDQ12 12-inch subwoofers (with Fishman grills) and two amplifiers into the custom enclosure. A Boston Acoustics GT22 feeds 100 watts to each of the front speakers and a Boston Acoustics GT24 delivers 900 watts, bridged, to the subwoofers. There are no processors in the car. For sound enhancement, Bon adjusts the crossovers built into the amps and uses the EQ on the tuner.

“The stereo sounds amazing,” Sum says. “In my system, you can feel the bass and understand the lyrics. I like to pump hip-hop, trance, pop, and Spanish music. It all sounds perfect.”

“A lot of the younger kids don’t go for Boston Acoustics,” Nguyen explains, “but these amplifiers had that solid, sanitary, clean look we were after. Besides, they sound completely awesome. We used the two Image Dynamics 12-inch subs because they can give you loud, tight bass from a relatively small enclosure. Also, as an unexpected benefit of removing the rear speakers, the bass seems to flow through the car better. It sounds less trapped.”

Photo by Steve Sawitz

Since video continues to be the buzz on the car show scene — and in the 12-volt industry in general — Sum didn’t want to be left behind. They installed two 7-inch Vizualogic headrest monitors and an Icon-TV motorized 7-inch ceiling monitor. Sum plays music video DVDs on the screens and he lets his friends spend their lunch break watching TV Novellas (Spanish soap operas) on his TV tuner.

“I get a lot of Spanish channels for some reason,” Sum says.

“We used all 7-inch screens because they’re not over the top,” Nguyen explains “A lot of people are trying to put these huge screens in their cars, even the smaller cars, but it really doesn’t blend in with the rest of the vehicle. It looks cool from far away, but as you get closer you realize that it doesn’t belong. We were trying to get away from that. We wanted everything to look like it belongs in the vehicle, and the headrests are so easy — all you do is drop a wire and replace the factory headrest.”

Sum and Nguyen have already brought the car to several local shows — Hot Import Night, Hot Import Days, SLAP — and have received positive feedback from other enthusiasts. Sum says it makes him feel good when people notice his car, but awards and accolades are definitely not his main motivation.

“If I win a few trophies here and there, that’s cool,” Sum says, “but I’m more into this because it’s fun. I’m really happy with my car. It turned out just the way I wanted it. It’s clean, it looks really good, and it keeps cops off my back. I love it.”

Nguyen agrees.

Photo by Steve Sawitz

“I think I met Bon’s goals,” Nguyen explains. “We built a nice looking daily driver that goes fast, corners very well, and sounds totally awesome. The system can impress judges, if need be, and we didn’t break Bon’s bank. Also, the modifications we made aren’t too extreme, so, if he wants to sell the car in a few years, he won’t have to worry about it falling apart. The car can be easily parted out or sold as is.”

As for the future, Sum plans on attending many shows with Nguyen and the crew from Serenity Sound. For a grand finale, he would like to someday swap out his Civic engine for a brand-new Acura RSX motor. But he’ll probably have to work a lot of overtime at JC Penny to make that happen. For now, he can rest easy knowing he’s got he very own dream car — maxed-out, subtle, and clean.