I just got some of the parts I ordered from Buschur Racing an decided to pop the trunk for a quick installation of the rear strut bar... only to find that the bar would end up punching right through the left side of the sun and sound 8" Sub! I knew that design was going to bite me back but I didn't look close enough at the strut towers behind the panels until tonight to see that having both was impossible. I may be able to angle the speaker to make some clearance but then I lose even more trunk space...

I'm also relocating my battery to the trunk, likely to the far back passenger corner. That rotten plastic sub box is also going to make using a battery box a really tight fit so I am about 5 seconds away from attaching the thing to a rope and death dragging it at 160...

Has anyone else with this 7th speaker from hell replaced it with a bazooka tube or similar removable sub box? In my Eclipse I remove my bozooka tube for racing events which pretty much keeps it outside of the car all the time so I might as well consider using it in the Evo. I am assuming that the rear sub has amplified signals heading into the plastic sub box since I didn't see any power wires. I'm thinking of throwing in an extra 300 watt amp that I have laying around with the tube while using a line level converter to reduce the signal to avoid distortion. I don't need huge boom or anything but was wondering if anyone else has tackled this situation.

I will also need to look into how much the standard trunk carpet will cost since they cut a piece out of mine for that rotten 8" plastic sub box molded to my strut tower. I guess if the battery box can be made to fit alongside the sub box I may just be better off without the strut bar. How much does it actually help on these Evo's since I'm also installing a rear anti roll bar.

 

Would this work for you?
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...91&postcount=4

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...=trunk+battery

 

That looks like a really clean install of the battery! I may go with that to allow better clearance of the stock sub box, but the more I think about it I just want to rip that thing out of there. How much room is there beteen a battery in that location and a rear strut bar? Hopefully atleast a couple inches to allow a battery box as I don't want to worry about items in the trunk shorting out the battery after a spirited drive.

 

as far as your stereo goes...use the stock wires and swap out the stock sub for a BassLink. I'm really happy with mine, easy to remove, light, and AWESOME sound.

 

If I can find the picture, I have a cusco CF bar on it. Plenty of room because the trunk is low where the battery is. The bar runs right across the top of the batterywith like 3 inches of clearance.

 

I figured that I would update you guys on what I ended up doing. I installed the Buschur Racing rear strut bar and after some carefull cutting I had minimal holes in my trunk's interior. I had some extra carpet scrap that I had to trim to allow the 8" sub to angle out more and was able to patch the holes snug with the strut bar. The Sun & Sound 8" Sub will fit if you angle it out about 3" to the left which ended up being the best solution for now. I cut the bottom right bracket shorter and drilled another hole to allow the sub to move rearward about an 1" and still use the single hole that was tapped in the trunk's floor. Next I moved the Bottom left bracket to the top bracket slot and after some carefull bending I was able to line up the threaded hole in the body of the car. Since the stock plastic sub box is so light having just 2 mounting points worked fine and since there is pressure up against the strut bar it feels extremely solid. You could also just redo the brackets with strap steel but I just wanted to get it done with what I had available.

Next move is to relocate the battery to the rear but I haven't decided on whether it would be better in the center under the strut bar or in the Passenger rear corner. Has anyone corner weighted a near stock car to find out where the best place would be for car balance? I'm sure it wouldn't be a noticeable difference either way but I need something to push me one way or the other.

 

Remember behind the wheels in one corner is not just the weight of the battery. Since it is behind the wheels it actually impacts the front corner weights.

 

I'm leaning towards mounting the battery under the stut bar which would be right over the wheels after you mention that. Likely the balance of the car will be better that way as well since it's in the rear but right over the wheels and not to one side or the other. I'm still just happy I got the strut bar in there without axing part of my stereo system or having to install something better already. That 8" sub is kinda wimpy but since it's so light I can just leave it in there when racing without any worries.