FEATURES
Phil Petracca finds peace in his garage. He admits that his most satisfying moments occur when he’s sitting in his car around midnight or 1:00 a.m. (or whenever his wife falls asleep), listening to his system, critiquing and making improvements. This passion, along with a solid foundation in fundamentals and a fearlessness to go above and beyond, has enabled the 12-volt veteran from New Jersey to achieve continuous success in car sound and performance competition.
Petracca, a director of Retail Brands for Sirius Satellite Radio, began competing in 1992 with an MB Quart/PPi/JL Audio/Alpine-infused Chevy Beretta GTZ. He spent the rest of the ‘90’s in a trial-and-error whirlwind, honing his craft. He later found success with his now-well-known computer-operated Mercedes Benz, winning at the IASCA and USACi Finals in 2001. He also clinched the overall IASCA National Point Champion award in 2000 and 2001. Now, after a short respite, Petracca is back with a black 2003 Infiniti G35 Sports Coupe built for world domination.
“I bought the car to use as an everyday driver,” Petracca says. “Initially, I started making performance upgrades — wheels, tires, brakes, suspension, headers, exhaust, clutch, flywheel, etc. Then I decided to upgrade the OEM stereo system. I worked with my longtime collaborator and right-hand-man, Bill Acevedo [from Sounds Impossible in Highlands, NJ], and put together a modest, but well-executed, system. CAR SOUND & PERFORMANCE displayed the car in their booth at CES last year in Las Vegas. The performance gear and the modest audio system received some good feedback. At the time, I didn’t plan to compete with the car.”
But after the show, as the car was being transported back from Vegas to Jersey, someone broke into the enclosed trailer and tried to either steal the car or steal stuff from the car. Because of the integrity of the audio and performance installations, the would-be thieves got nothing. Zilch. But, the hooligans’ clumsy use of their tools of the trade — crowbar, screwdriver, hydraulic lift, the works — caused about $25,000 worth of damage to the Coupe.
“I was heartbroken,” Petracca recalls. “I needed to basically start from scratch — brand new audio system and brand new overall interior. So, Bill and I basically disassembled the entire car, at which time we triumphantly decided to take the system up about 10 notches”
The G35 is one of those cars from which it’s virtually impossible to remove the factory radio. The air conditioner, navigation, and radio controls are all on a single PCB board. If you try to disassemble the board, a starter immobilizer is triggered and the car won’t start. To combat this, Petracca imported a JDM dashboard from Japan that includes all the electronics necessary to remove the factory radio. In addition, the new dash’s ISO double-DIN opening was perfect for the installation of the Alpine CDA-7990 F#1 Status CD receiver and the Alpine PXA-H900 Alpine F#1 Status Multimedia Manager, through which Petracca controls time delay, EQ, crossovers, and more from the driver’s seat. Petracca and Acevedo then configured the factory pop-up in-dash navigation screen to still work independently of the audio system. Next, they built a multiplex circuit to tie the factory steering wheel controls into the aftermarket audio system for volume, track, and source adjustments.
Next, they installed Alpine SPX-Z15M 2-way components into the kick panels in a way that provided increased security and improved sound quality. They welded an 1/8-inch steel baffle for each panel to the vehicle’s chassis — 3 inches deeper and 6 inches forward from the original factory location — and bolted the speakers directly to the baffle.
“Those speakers are not coming out,” Petracca says. “They’re actually part of the car’s structure at this point. And the reason this improves sound quality is because we added mass to the driver — in essence, we have the entire 3300-lb car as part of the mass of the driver. This reduces resonance and vibration, and increases tonality. This is a concept I borrowed from the home audio playbook. When you buy high-end home speakers, the cabinets often weigh in excess of 400 lbs each. The reason they weigh so much is to increase the mass of the speaker for much better sound quality.”
Petracca and Acevedo used a similar technique when creating the subwoofer enclosure in the trunk. They mounted two Infinity Kappa Perfect 12DVQ 12-inch subs in a baffle made of 4-1/2-inch-thick, ultralight MDF that’s bolted directly to the tubular steel chassis of the vehicle. Between the subs is an amplifier rack — two JBL PX600.2’s feeding 600 watts to each component up front and a JBL BPX2200.1 delivering 2200 watts to the subs.
“You want to have as much headroom as possible,” explains Petracca. “With today’s more reasonable amplifier prices, there’s no reason to not have as much power as possible.”
The amp rack can be completely removed from the trunk in less than 60 seconds, just in case Petracca receives an impromptu invitation to a road race.
Speaking of racing, this G35 is filled to the brim with sophisticated performance modifications. For suspension, Petracca thought outside of the box. First, he went to Wild Ride Race Cars in Lakewood, NJ, where they lifted the car, placed independent scales under each tire, and dropped the car back down. They gave Petracca a printout of the exact weight of the car at each tire. Petracca then passed this information on to TEIN, a high-tech suspension outfit. The engineers at TEIN were able to fabricate a customized suspension system using their Formula 1 style EDFC (Electronic Damping Force Controller) technology.
“The TEIN system is crazy,” Petracca explains. “I have a module on my dash through which I can control the rebounding and dampening of the suspension system on the car. If I pull up to a light and some squid racer in a fart can wants to drag race, I can hit a setting that removes all the dampening in my rear shocks, so I can gain traction off the line. When I get up to speed, I hit another button that firms the suspension right back up. I win. Not that I would ever condone street racing. Also, the system’s adjustable coilovers allow me to drop the ride height to the ground or increase the height for snowy, rainy days in NY. Don Zubritsky of Straight Line Automotive in Union Beach, NJ, was instrumental to all the performance modifications.”
Other performance mods include a JWT High Clamping Force Clutch and Low Inertia Flywheel, a Brembo Gran Turismo braking system, Bridgestone Potenza S-03 tires with SSR Comp-H wheels, Random Technology super stainless high flow catalytic converters, Defi-Link Meter BF electronic blacked out gauges, a NISMO Race LSD and differential cooler with large Heat Soak, a Technosquare Technos ECU tuning system, Hotchkis sport sway bars, and a 500+ Horsepower JWT Twin Turbo system in the works.
Competition & The Future
Once they finished the vehicle, Petracca and Acevedo went to the Steel Valley Regional in West Virginia on a whim. When they took first place in the Expert Street class, they decided to throw their hat into the competition ring once again. They’ve now taken the daily driver to 13 IASCA shows so far in 2004 and have won 12 first place trophies and 10 “Best of Show” honors.
“We’re going to the SLAP and IASCA Finals to compete against all the heavy guns,” Petracca says. “I’ve also received an invitation to compete in the IASCA International Sound Quality event, where 20 of the most recognized Sound Quality World Champions will compete head to head.”
And if that doesn’t have the competition shaking in their boots, Petracca is also in the process of significantly renovating the Mercedes with which he won Finals in 2001. He and Acevedo — along with World Champions Mark Eldridge and Gary “who’s your daddy” Biggs — are working on some things that have never been fathomed. And Petracca’s become friendly with an acclaimed audio mastering engineer, Dave Horoschak, whose experienced ears may prove to be invaluable to the tuning of a competition vehicle. Look for the Mercedes next year at South Padre Island.
Thanks
Petracca credits his success to his main-man Acevedo (“Bill’s been a rock for me from the beginning.”), audio mastering engineer Dave Horoschak, (“Dave’s really allowed me to kick it up a notch from years past.”), Straight Line Automotive’s Don Zubritsky (“Don is the performance guru in our area.”), CAR SOUND & PERFORMANCE’s Rob Hephner (“Rob’s always been a source for non-biased, absolutely blunt advice.”), and the CAR SOUND & PERFORMANCE Forum (“If you’re a new guy coming onto the scene, you could spend an afternoon on the CAR SOUND FORUM and you’d come away with basically all the tools and information necessary to build a good competition car.”).
He also thanks Mark Eldridge, Gary Biggs, Team JBL, Alpine, Metra, SoundGate, Dynamat, and StreetGlow.
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