FEATURES
Shut Up And Drive
By Mike Sanchez / Photos by Rob Hephner
Posted on Sep 16, 2004

When 2003 Champ Car World Series Champion Paul Tracy’s not cruising around on one of his custom Harleys, ripping it up on his Paul Tracy model 125 CC shifter go-cart, or doing a scary 150 MPH in his 50-foot Skater boat, he needs something to get him from point A to point B in his hometown of Las Vegas, NV. The active Champ Car driver with the most career victories (26) chose a white 2003 Hummer H2 for his daily driver and filled it with all the necessities. With the help of his long time friend, and fellow vehicle customization enthusiast Allen Jay and the folks at Sound Xpression in Phoenix, AZ, Tracy built an audio/video/performance powerhouse that perfectly complements the prolific racer’s personality.

“When I got the Hummer, I pretty much was going to keep it stock,” Tracy explains. “I liked the new body style, and it turned some heads the way it was. Then I went to SEMA and CES here in Las Vegas and the wheels in my head started turning. They had a lot of nice Hummers there, and I was seeing all these custom headliners and interiors and monitors. Once my wheels start turning, that’s it. There’s no stopping me.”

Soon, Tracy would add the following performance enhancements: a Magusen 6.0L supercharger, an Airaid cold air intake system, an SMA Hummer billet shifter with accessories, an exhaust and suspension system custom built by a Las Vegas performance shop, and BF Goodrich G-Force tires on 24-inch chrome CEC wheels with spinners (he would later upgrade to 26-inch tires and wheels). Then Tracy had the H2 factory body flares and bumpers painted white to match the rest of the exterior.

With the outside of the Hummer in tip-top shape, it was time to focus inward. Tracy and Jay called on Sound Xpression’s Jeff Hempleman and David Clark, a pair of 12-volt veterans who’ve done some stellar installs for Tracy over the years, and whose install portfolio includes several NIKE Hummer H1 vehicles and the famous NBA Miami Heat Fire Truck.

“They pretty much know what I want in an install,” Tracy says of Hempleman and Clark. “I dropped off the Hummer and gave them a few general preferences. They basically said, ‘Call us in a month, and it’ll be done.’ They handled all of it. We have a good trust thing going on.”

Tracy was off to the races, literally. Between practice laps, meetings, appearances, and Champ Car races in different cities every weekend, the only way for him to keep on top of the H2 install was via Sprint PCS phones. Jay regularly sent him pictures and videos of the H2’s progress.

At the very beginning of the first week, installer Hempleman completely gutted the interior — including the front dash and rear tire carrier — and applied Dynamat sound-damping material throughout the vehicle. Next, he laid out Directed Essentials wiring from front to back. He then began fabricating the front dash to fit a Directed 10.4-inch monitor and a Kenwood Excelon KVT-911 touchscreen, in-dash TV/DVD/CD/Sirius Satellite Radio tuner.

“The Kenwood tuner and flip-out screen has been completely rebuilt to become a part of the dash,” Jay explains. “The unit no longer opens up, as it was taken apart and re-configured. Now, the Kenwood unit looks like it came straight from the factory.”

“I wanted something that looks factory,” Tracy adds. “A lot of times these things turn out not looking factory and, later down the line, when you want to change cars, you might have a problem.”

Hempleman also re-fabricated the front and rear pillars to accommodate two sets of a/d/s/ 345cs 2-way component speakers, which include 5-inch midranges and tweeters. He chose a/d/s/ 346cs 6.5-inch 2-way components for the factory front and rear door locations.

During the second week, Hempleman built an amplifier rack into the headliner that would house three Orion amplifiers — the 8004 splitting 3200 watts between the front door and front pillar speakers, the 8002 feeding 800 watts to each of two Orion H2 12-inch subs, and the 6002 splitting 1200 watts between the rear door and rear pillar components. The rack also houses a Kenwood 902 Sirius Satellite Radio receiver.

After Hempleman built the amp rack, he installed two Directed 10.4-inch flip-down monitors for the rear passengers. Because the truck would become Tracy’s daily driver, Hempleman built a vented tuned sub enclosure into the spare tire well so that Tracy could use the rear compartment to store mountain bikes, gear, or anything else he wanted to store. He then had the seats, door panel trim, headliner, and shifter area upholstered in Gucci material.

“It’s very ‘MTV Cribs,’” Tracy jokes about the Gucci print. “But seriously, I really wanted suede. I work on a lot of my own stuff, so I’m not always the cleanest guy in the world, and the Gucci material was made of canvas, so it’s a little easier to keep clean. Plus, I use my cars pretty hard — they’re not just show cars. The Gucci is fairly subtle; it’s not as ‘bling bling’ as you might think.”

Weeks 3 and 4 were all about putting everything back together and installing a Directed Viper 791XV security and remote start system and a Kenwood GPS navigation system.

“Paul wanted audio, video, and Sirius Satellite Radio; and clean sound was important to him,” Jay explains. “But when he heard music on Sirius that he liked, he wanted the system to be loud with some heavy bass. So, between the high-end components and the intense 12-inch subs, we got both sound quality and boom covered, and it only took 28 days to achieve.”

Tracy says that he loves the stealthy aspects of the install: “My favorite thing about the install is that if you just peeked in the window, you’d hardly have any idea that any work was done inside at all,” he explains. “It’s very clean; everything’s hidden really well. The other important thing is I had to keep room in the back to store my bags and my bikes and stuff when I go on the road. The sub enclosure built into the spare tire well doesn’t really take up any space.”

You’d think Champ Car racing’s baddest driver would be a maniac on the road, but he says he drives his H2 in a mellow manner with his two kids, Alysha and Conrad, in tow.

“It’s a car that not only I can enjoy, but also my kids can enjoy,” Tracy says. “The video screens make my life easier when we take a road trip. And the Sirius — between US1 playing top 40, Octane pumping alternative, and all the hip-hop stations — is pretty much all I listen to. I also have satellite in my mobile home for when I’m away at the races and I’ve got it in my boat.”

Other vehicles that Tracy has or had in his eclectic fleet include a 2003 Ferrari 360 Spyder, a Mercedes CL 55 and SL 600, a supercharged Chevrolet Suburban, a BMW X5 and M3, a Porsche 911, an Acura NSX, a Chevrolet Dually, and, of course, his Forsythe Racing Turbocharged Ford V8 open wheel Champ Car with Lola chassis.

Tracy thanks Sound Xpression and Concept1 for their excellent installation and fabrication skills and West Coast Customs in Southern California for providing the Gucci material.