One of a Kind Custom '83 Regal

HzEmall Customs, located just north of the Washington state border in Surrey, Canada, builds some of the most impressive custom cars I've ever laid eyes on. These automotive artists can create anything from the extreme to the ultra-clean, and their shop demo car is a perfect example.

This '83 Buick Regal has been a long-term project for HzEmall over the years, and has received quite few custom touches. The hood, trunk lid, and added spoiler were replaced with donor parts from Grand National, and then the car and many of the factory chrome bits were treated to a fresh paint job. The Regal was dropped down on Belltech bits and fitted with some 16×8 Center Line Style 89 wheels. The final product is pretty breathtaking, but wait until you see pics of the completely custom interior and audio install over at HzEmall's website.

Canada Represent: BC Classic & Custom Car Show, eh!

The BC Classic & Custom Car Show was last weekend, and since CarDomain hasn't covered very many Canadian car shows, I decided to make the trek to the Great White North to see what Canada's scene was all about ("aboot"). All-in-all I in was pretty impressed - those Canucks know how to build a hot rod! The show coverage will be live on CarDomain shortly, but for now, I have a bunch of teaser pics after the jump showcasing the car audio installs I encountered.

Install Update: 1969 Camaro by HzEmall Customs

Tim over at HzEmall Customs has made some progress on the 1969 Camaro they're building out. The doors are done! The stock door you see above is pretty plain-Jane and just don't match the caliber of install HzEmall is putting together, so the stock panels had to go. The finished product below looks many times better than stock, and maintains the smooth flow that's taking shape at the hands of Tim & Co. Click the links to hop over to HzEmall for details and some step-by-step photos of the panels taking shape.

Head units, Navigation & Everything In Between

I wrote this a few months ago for my monthly article in RPM Motoring Monthly and I thought I would post it here as well. I wanted to talk about what’s new in the world of head units (radio’s, CD players, decks, just pic your terminology), but there really hasn’t been anything “new” for quite sometime, so lets talk about what has changed and what has improved.

OEM vs. Aftermarket
Almost every car sold today comes with a CD player as a factory feature, so why do people still want to remove and upgrade them? Because they want better sound quality and better features than what the OEM radio offers. A lot of people think stock sound systems are at a all time high as far as sound quality is concerned, but that simply isn’t true. In the 80’s and 90’s tape decks were the standard, and they sounded OK but nothing special. The fancier systems from companies like Bose and others sounded a little better, but really were nothing to write home about. Today the standard is CD, so all cars have CD players and most people think that because the CD player is standard, the car has a much better sound system.

 

But it’s not. It’s the same thing we've always had - marginal sound quality with a modern source unit. Now there are some cars out there, like the Acura TL and some new Lexus, that have really good sound systems, but not everybody can afford those kinds of cars....

Lexus Offers Very Ugly, Very Expensive Rear Seat Entertainment

I'm not sure what the guys over at Jalopnik are thinking, stating that "Lexus Does Backseat Entertainment Systems, Gets It Right"... This has got to be one of the ugliest rear-seat entertainment systems I've ever seen. And how much does it cost to add this eye-sore to your $40k+ plus grocery getter? And additional $4300!! Do you know what kind of Rear Seat Entertainment system (RSE) you can get for that kind of cheddar at an aftermarket car stereo shop? And do you realize how much better it will look?

The Lexus system looks like an unfolded laptop computer mounted to the back of each seat. The systems feature a wide WVGA screen and integrated slot-loading DVD player, and each "tablet" offers an A/V RCA input for game systems or additional sources, as well as USB and an SD card slot for MP3s and pictures. The screens can share a source if the passengers want to watch the same movie, or each screen can feature separate sources - movie on one, game system on the other. The system also includes a pair of infrared headphones (dual source I'm assuming).

in the forums!