Polk Audio has three identical Ford F-150s touring the nation. Polk chose the F-150 because they were looking for a vehicle that met two important criteria: the ride had to look cool yet be extremely reliable and comfortable since it would have to log more than 50,000 miles a year driving across the nation!
Starting with the F-150 extended cab, Polk added American Racing wheels and low profile BF Goodrich tires. The trucks were lowered using Bell-Tech lowering kits for a road hugging look. Some of the cosmetic changes included Bell-Tech billet aluminum grilles, Keystone ground effects, ARE becovers, rear spoiler, and PIAA driving lights. Subtle graphics were added to the pearl silver paint.
Although the F-150 is very clean looking as far as demo vehicles go, it is still a head turner. It's also a refreshing change from some of the more frivolous demo vehicles we've seen. Polk Audio decided against motorized amp racks and neon lights mainly for reliability issues. They wanted the sound quality "do the talking."
Here is the F-150 on display at the 1999 CES show in Las Vegas.
Polk started with the Alpine CVA-1000 LCD screen head unit and NVA-N751A navigation module. This would no doubt be useful when trekking across the US! An Alpine CHA-S605 CD changer serves as the music source. The signal is fed into an Alpine DRE-A500 electronic crossover which distributes the appropriate signals to seven Apine ampifiers.
Three MRV-502 drive four Polk Audio db3000 tweeters, two 5 1/4" db5510 midranges, two 6 1/2" db6510 mid-bass drivers, and a db4620 center channel speaker. The 5 1/4" and two of the tweeters were mounted in Q-Form kickpanel enclosures from Q-Logic. The 6 1/2" were mounted in the factory door locations while the last pair of tweeters were mounted in flush in the A pillars. The center channel was mounted in a custom fabricated opening on the dash.
Four Alpine MRV-1002 amplifiers drive eight Polk Audio db12 12" subwoofers. The subwoofers can be switched on or off independently. When all 12s are pounding, the F-150 SPL tops out at 145 dB.
All wiring is Streetwires by Esoteric Audio. Zero Noise cables were used throughout for all signal cables. Dynamat Super was applied to a number of body panels to control any unwanted vibrations.
If you want more info on this installation, email polk at
cpelkowski@polkaudio.com
You can find out more information about Polk Audio products on their web site:
www.polkaudio.com
Don't forget to check out SoundDomain.com's profile on Polk Audio:
www.SoundDomain.com/manufacturers/polk.cgi
Want to learn more about Q-Logic custom enclosures? Check out SoundDomain.com's profile on Q-Logic:
www.sounddomain.com/manufacturers/qlogic.cgi
