First Light: 2010 Chevy Camaro SS/RS

First Light: 2010 Chevy Camaro SS/RS

Todd Crowder of Benton, AR is a self-proclaimed Camaro fanatic. In the winter of 2009, he placed his order for the 2010 Camaro SS/RS you see here. Built with care a few dozen kilometres from the PAS offices, the Camaro was delivered later that summer. As the owner of TC Audio, Crowder immediately set to work on a plan to build a premium showpiece for his store, and equip it with an audio system that was capable of more than holding its own on the soundoff competition circuit.


During the planning stage of the installation, Crowder made some performance and styling tweaks to the silver bird (aka. Project SS). A 3” Flowmaster American Thunder cat-back exhaust system opened up the big 6.2L and let it breathe. A custom ECU tune upped the efficiency of combustion and released a few more ponies. The car was lowered 1.5-inches with coilovers and a set of purple under-car LEDs were installed to give it that ‘just right’ look in the judging lanes. A few body parts were colour-matched to round out the clean and seamless look.First Light: 2010 Chevy Camaro SS/RS

With the interior completely removed, Crowder set to work laying down a thorough layer of Dynamat Superlite sound deadening – 210 square feet in all. The stock battery was removed in favor of a pair of potent Kinetik KHC1800 power cells, which now reside in the spare tire well to feed the system. 0awg power cable runs the length of the vehicle. All wiring added to the vehicle was protected with Techflex braided sleeving for maximum protection and unified aesthetics. While apart, the factory wiring in locations like the kick panels was rerouted to make way for the custom speaker installation.

Construction of the front stage is critical to achieving sonic clarity and detail. A set of JBL 660GTI components were installed in small painted fibreglass tubs that were molded into new kick panels. The tweeters are angled for maximum imaging and staging characteristics. Moving rearwards, the factory door speaker location is now home to a pair of 5-inch subwoofers mounted in an aperiodic enclosure. This provides damping and control while allowing for good low frequency extension. Translation: they hit hard even when played loud! The factory rear speakers were removed from the rear deck and a set of JBL P662 coaxial speakers were given homes in the rear side panels. While it’s all very custom and required extensive fabrication, the speaker locations are stealthy and integrate well with the vehicle.

The trunk was the focal point of much of the labour for the installation. A pair of vented subwoofer enclosure were fabricated – each with an internal volume of 1.75 cubic feet. The enclosures were built on either side of the trunk and the vents exit behind the rear seat. The woofers themselves fire inwards into the trunk area. In each large enclosure is a JBL w10GTi Mkii subwoofer, and given the volume of the enclosure, we are sure it plays nice and low.

First Light: 2010 Chevy Camaro SS/RS First Light: 2010 Chevy Camaro SS/RS First Light: 2010 Chevy Camaro SS/RS


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