Chapter II - I WILL POSSESS YOUR HEART!
I’d pretty much fallen head over heels and this time too, it was for another Fiat; I had to add her to my Harem(1.6 GTX , 1.2 ELPS). She looked exquisite in Vocal White, an apt color for my new virgin bride. But she would be different from her siblings. I knew exactly what I wanted to do to her; she was going to be Transformed!
The booking process was very smooth. Put 50k down as booking amount for the FIRE engined Emotion, delivery would be after 11 days. I'd pretty much decided that the car will be bought from Rama Motors, Okhla, after the test drive as Aditya Goel, the owner of the dealership took time out to personally answer my queries and give me a Grand Tour of his facilities.
But I had a few conditions; the Grills and Fog Lamp covers would be painted metallic Black(aka Hip Hop Black) and the interiors(seats, door panels, arm rest etc) would be dismantled at the dealership and sent to be customised and then refit at the dealership. The headlight bulbs would be changed to Philips 4300k Crystal vision(Rs 2300 for the set of H1 and H4), and my red Italian Stebel Nautilus(Rs 850) would replace the German Hella twin horns.
He readily agreed !
Shocked to get a call from Aditya(Rama Motors) the very next day :
Aditya: Bro, Your car is here !
Me: What ? You said 11 days!
Aditya : Yeah, but managed to get one from another dealer. It’s yours if you want it.
Me: I’m there!
I always knew my GTX was fast, but today it seemed like she was on steroids or something. Scaring all the pedestrians, she got me there in half the time.
Me: Where is she ?
Aditya: In the back, parked away from the riff-raff.
Heart beating faster than a speeding train, I slowly approached her. Was she the one for me? Sadly, NO! Seemed like someone had already had their way with her and her body reflected the scars of the outcome. Her rear end (read bumper) was scratched; the boot lid had been touched up with plain white paint, the interiors were dirty...STOP. I didn’t want to see anymore.
Me: Uhhh, I think I’ll wait for 11 days.
Aditya: No problem, I’ll call you when she’s here.
11 days of never ending wait; nay, 11 days of planning. “Who” will drape her? “What” will she wear? She not only has to look good, she has to sound good too; ICE, ICE Baby! Again, the same lousy “Who” and “What”! Enough of the whining already, do some research; we have been blessed with the Internet, use it.
Googled up Karlson, Ceralli, Ovion and Stanley as the possible protagonists for my leather fetish but sadly, only Stanley was offering services in Delhi. Seems like the guys down South are spoiled for choice, while we, despite being in the National Capital, are a starved lot.
Stanley quoted 38k for pure leather and art leather combo, 52k for pure leather and 80k for Nappa leather . Uhhh, no, thank you! Way out of my budget since I was interested only in pure leather. Made a few calls, managed to find a friend of a friend, who’d been in the business of refurbishing interiors of old luxury cars for the last 30 years. His name, Aditya; his establishment, Autocraft.
Me: Hi, am I speaking with Aditya of Autocraft ?
Aditya: Yes Sir, How may I help you?
Me: I want to get leather interiors for my Linea; Seats, door panels, handbrake shroud, gearshift shroud, and centre arm rest. All in pure leather!
Aditya: Yes Sir, we can do that. Why don’t you come down to my showroom and I can show you some samples and designs.
Me: I’d like the front seats to be customised for my body frame with side bolstering and under thigh support extensions. Can you do that as well? And I will design the seat pattern; don’t want a copy of what you have already done for someone else.
Aditya : Sure, no problem. We can do whatever design you want. But it will take 4 days for the customization.
Me: How much for the entire job ?
Aditya: Depends on the leather you chose, but roughly between 32k to 38k.
This was too good to be true. Custom seats in pure leather for 38k!
Hopped across to his showroom to discuss the feasibility of my design and select the leather. He agreed to do the design, but it meant more work and more time as I wanted to have horizontal stitching instead of the OEM vertical ones. Now, let’s see some skin! I wanted Tan coloured leather, but then a little voice inside my head said “Burnt Orange” with double sided beige stitching. Hmm, the interior lighting in the Linea is Orange/Amber, and this seemed like a great idea. He sourced the exact shade that I’d envisioned and it was stunning. Vocal White with Burnt Orange interiors; Task 1 accomplished!
Let the quest for the ICE begin. This bit really took quite a bit of research and a lot of time on Tbhp(specially on Pranava99’s Linea ICE thread) than on working while at work. The reason for my misery was really simple; the OEM Blaupunkt HU does not have RCA outs, but only speaker level line outputs. I could’ve run this into an amp which takes line level inputs, but my research showed that this signal would not be very clean. In order to get a clean signal, I would need to convert the line level out to RCA out. To do this, I would need to use a 4 channel LOC(LINE OUT CONVERTER). Or go in for DSP(Digital Signal Processor) like a RF 360.1/360.2, JL Audio Clean Sweep or something similar. This is the best solution to get the cleanest sound but also the most expensive(JL Audio CS is 40k and RF 360 about 60k). The economics just didn't work out for me. Hell, I could get the MOMO 17 inch alloys for this kind of cash but more on that later.
Research is one thing, sourcing the stuff in Saaddi Dilli , another. Happened to spot “Driven” one day while driving home, and made a pit stop. Mr. Rana, the proprietor, was very helpful and put me on to Gunbir(needs no intro, I’m sure) and all the pieces of my puzzle began to fall into place.
There in the middle of the circle he stands
Searching, seeking
With just one touch of his trembling hand
The answer will be found
Me: Hi. I'm looking to upgrade the sound system in my car. I have a Fiat Linea and the stock OEM HU is a Blaupunkt without any RCA outs. I'm interested in installing an amp, and a sub. Can you help?
Gunbir: Sure. We've done many installations similar to your requirements where the owners wanted to retain the stock HU, but enhance the overall sound. What's your budget?
Me: I've seen some of the posts of the installs you've done on team-bhp and am very impressed. Haven't decided on a budget for ICE yet ; but my Dad is not Richard Branson.
Gunbir: Oh well, we'll still be able to help you out. You could look at the BULL HLA 4 Line Out Converter, which is reasonable for about 5k and depending on the kind of music you listen to, I could recommend the amp, sub, and speakers. How old are you, what is the kind of music you listen to; Jazz, Pop, Hip Hop, Trance, Classic Rock, Hard Rock? Are you looking for SPL or SQL?
Me: I listen mainly to Classic Rock, along with some POP music from the Eighties. I also listen to a RHCP, Default, Nickleback, Death Cab For Cutie to name a few. I'm interested in sound quality, and the bass should be just enough, not thumping! Oh yeah, and I'm 40 years young.
Gunbir: I'd recommend a front soundstage with Rainbow Dreamline CSX 6.25" compos for the front with a Rainbow 12" Hammer Sub powered by a Kenwood 8404 amp. It's a clean sounding amp and will do justice to the speakers. Of course, it'll be better to get a mono amp for the sub, but we can do that in the next phase. If you want something less expensive, you could look at BULL AUDIO speakers and Sub. It's basically "Rainbow" made in China. Check out the Rainbow products at
rainbow - german car audio | Rainbow Audio Components . Rainbow is made in Germany and available here with warranty through us. You can audition the same with us anytime you like and then take a call.
Me: I've never heard of the Rainbow or BULL. Maybe it's just my ignorance. But I'll check out the details on the website and get back to you. There's still about a week to go before I get the delivery of my car; I'll call you once I have her and then we can discuss the options. Thanks much for you help.
Gunbir: Sounds good. Maybe I can try and get you to audition some of the recent cars we've done. Let me know when. Cheers!
There in middle of the circle it lies
Heaven help me
Then all could see by the shine in his eyes
The answer had been found.
Yes, the answer had been found! I was over the moon after this conversation. I knew I was in good hands, one of the best even. It would be an experience to savour; maybe, even write about in the "Transformation Chronicles".
29th July 2009, 20:52
Superb! 