Words: Brendon Gilbert Photos: Archives
NZPC: Hey Brendon, tell us a bit about yourself and how you first got involved with cars and the modified scene.
I was lucky enough to have parents who let me go to the shed and tinker in my early teenage years. My dad had three sheds full of tools, engine parts and materials, so I would play with them all and figure out how to do things from what I’d seen on TV and in magazines. So, I started building sub boxes and doing systems for friends and family before I got my licence. We used to drive around The Square in Palmerston North with massive sound systems booming away, windows down on cold nights, back when The Square was packed every weekend, until the cops cracked down on it in a big way. We used to go to Car Sounds and SSS, then rush home to slap it in and go cruising that afternoon, night and early morning, then get ready for the next day.
We wanted things that were in magazines, so I taught myself how to fibreglass in my dad’s shed and tried to steal knowledge from the local fibreglass shop guy so we could make WRX bonnet scoops and reason over things and start forming some crazy shapes, plus making side skirts and body kit parts that we could only see in magazines. But when doing all these things, as it was back then, you would have to go and ask someone who knows and hope they share their information and knowledge with you. Then you would go and try things, and when it stuffed up, you went back, and hopefully that generation would share their knowledge and hand it down, which I found a lot of people did.
While I was racing bikes, I got to work with some very knowledgeable engineers, and one of them was Kenny Douglas in Levin, where I was working as a fitter-turner. This is where I got to expand a lot of my creative skills, and he handed down a lot of knowledge to everyone around him as he did a lot of motorsport engineering. Then, when I moved to Hamilton, I got a job at MadSoundz Hamilton in the prime heyday of car audio. We were selling $10,000 amplifiers and $11,000 Alpine head units, which was reasonably common, and the first thing you did when you got a car was put a stereo in it.
By then, back when I was 18, I had a 1979 Cadillac Coupe DeVille that I’d taken the springs out of and would drive around Hamilton a couple of years later, taking the cat eyes off the street with my crossmembers, trying to do my poor man’s version of a lowrider. I was approached by Justin and a couple of the guys from Oldskool Rydz lowrider club, which was just kicking off, and started doing crazy installs and applying crazy ideas to the lowrider scene, where extreme ideas are a bonus. Carl, who owned MadSoundz then, was a big player in the game and would make some amazing cars and win heaps of shows and awards. Plus, with Bryan, another legend of the game who was there, it was a great place to learn and to get the confidence to express some of my crazy ideas on my own and friends’ cars. I then moved to Australia but wasn’t there too long when Carl and Pauline contacted me to set up a store in Australia, and I said I would come back and sort out the Tauranga store. Carl really trusted me and left me to it over there and let me be creative on many vehicles.
Right in the prime time of shows like Auto Salon and 4 & Rotary Nationals, we’re in the mid-2000s. I was young and very keen to impress and would do every show and build multiple cars or modify my own cars every show if possible. I’ve had so many cars I wouldn’t even be able to think how many, but all different types.
Then, after running that store for a few years, I bought the store off him as it had become its own name, with all of the magazines and TV shows, like the first drifting events being sponsored by my store and drift events when it started, plus shows in whole halls at the 4 & Rotary Nationals. I would say almost every NZ Performance Car issue had two or three cars I’d been involved in. But then, in 2007, I decided to buy an FD RX-7 and turn it into a drift car, so I got the 20B motor, all the upgrades, and then had to get a BN body kit out of Japan that I paid two people for and was let down by because they would not ship it out of Japan. But Mad Mike heard that I had got the kit, and he helped me get it in and went halves in the kit that I finally got. He got it plugged, and then they kind of went everywhere, so it wasn’t as special when it was just him and me with them. But I never started drifting, as he said I’d probably put it in the wall, being that I’d be learning in a 20B-powered FD.
After going to the 2005 Las Vegas CES show, I came back really knowing what extreme cars were about in the effort that they put into their cars overseas. So I turned the car into an extreme show car, which was a pretty big thing in Australia, and there were a couple in New Zealand, but nothing to that crazy standard like in the States. So I tried to ramp up the American cars even, but on a fraction of the budget, and with friends helping out, I made that crazy RX-7. Back then, screens were everywhere and whoever could do the most extreme, impractical ideas won, so I just kept making extreme modifications on cars to try and lift the game in New Zealand to that crazy level where people come to shows, “Why the F?” and “What the F?” But I believe that’s what you want to see at a show, and that’s what brought a lot of people to shows to see.
The show scene wasn’t ready for it, so they couldn’t award a lot of the stuff because it didn’t fit the criteria that were around. So they developed the Showstopper class to separate these dedicated show cars, and then more and more were turning up in that class, like Toni’s Louis Vuitton Mercedes that I got very carried away on and still actually own today, and so many other cool cars where people pushed the limits. Today, people build a nice car and make it very practical, but I believe back then show cars were meant to be crazy things to look at and hopefully they still move as well, haha. I then found that the drift scene had taken over a lot of the influence, so people would want their cars zip-tied together and the interiors gutted, and stereos were becoming redundant in that scene. So, as much as I sponsored drifting and drifters in the early days, that scene took a bit of a toll on the show scene and extreme car builds, I believe. So maybe I shot myself in the foot a little, haha.
After a few change rounds with the store and a bit of rebranding, I then moved MadSoundz Tauranga on to my store manager Todd, who was a good friend and an extremely loyal, hard worker, and moved back down the way to Palmerston North to expand into home audio as well. I bought the old legendary Manawatu TV and Sound store, which was one of the biggest electronic stores in New Zealand years back and is now over 60 years old, but I’ve changed the name to Manawatu SoundHub. We are also importing MTX car audio, the legend from back in the day who developed in the ’70s, and I’ve started doing extreme builds and custom installs again on the regular. I have a few projects going at the moment and a couple of extreme ones that hopefully will be shown soon or that I will be carrying on with, and one would be more extreme or as extreme as my old RX-7. But currently, I am doing an extreme lowrider show car that is a real passion project. After seeing them for so many years in the States and the New Zealand scene getting big, it’s time to push the limits a bit there too, which is praised in that scene.
Here in Palmerston North, for nine months of the year there are one to three shows on the weekend, and major shows up north start kicking off from September. But the Palmerston car scene is big, as it is the second biggest hub in New Zealand population-wise, with all the surrounding areas that use Palmerston as their centre and cars being a must-have. I have to say it’s one of the craziest car cultures in New Zealand. It’s perfect for somewhere for me to have fun and be creative when people give me the opportunity to let loose. I’ve tried to stay more focused and just do simple boot installs with a few highlights here and there, but with more and more creative people moving here, I think it’s a good sign for things to come in the car scene and the audio industry.
What was the atmosphere like at events such as Auto Salon and 4 & Rotary Nationals?
The scene back then was awesome, and with good organisers running events, legends in the game like Azhar and Downtime, it seems to be coming back due to their efforts. But there would be lines out the door, or you and all your friends would come together with a car ready to get there for the show. There were crowds of people, bikini-wearing promo girls, T-shirt competitions, events outside in a sea of people, with car audio blaring through the halls, crazy colours everywhere, and every stand and display was themed, with retailers spending thousands of dollars to display their products, from small companies to really big brands.
We would do display stands in the whole ends of buildings with the cars we had done for people and sell tens of thousands of dollars worth of audio products that we would clear out for suppliers that were overstocked. So we were doing 15-inch subwoofers for $49, Fast and the Furious audio packs because that’s what everyone wanted because it was in all of the movies, sports stars like Jonah Lomu were putting audio in, and it was the cool thing to have. Some people were actually buying their audio before they even had a car, I recall. We would have a truck or a bus so we could sell stock at the Dragway after the show the day before, where there were seas of people amazed at cars doing 12-second quarter miles.
Every show had traffic jams backed up in every direction, waiting to get in to get a glimpse of the spectacle that was the show scene then. We still had two-day car audio sound-offs for sound quality. There would be a whole hall full, and cars would be judged in every aspect of installation quality, materials used, the gear and the sound, of course. Then there was SPL, which has started coming back again now, as it had died off for 10 or 15 years, but now really seems to be having a resurgence.
What made a car stand out back then? Was it the audio setup, fabrication, paint, interior, attention to detail, or the overall package?
Back then, everything had to be good, and your car was scored on everything together. It was scored on interior, exterior, sound system, wheels, everything. But for me, it was the point of difference, because everyone had the Skyline that they painted, put wheels on and put in the show, and they were all tidy. But the public would walk past and comment, “That’s a nice colour,” and for driving around the street, it probably looked like a great car. But I believe show cars needed to be something that people stopped and had to take in all the details and the crazy things in crazy places that wouldn’t be seen out on the roads normally. This is how it is in other countries with extreme show car building.
But if you could do something that no one else had done, then the next person had to try and one-up you to outscore you. So if you didn’t win, you could see on your scorecard that you’re let down in that area, so you’d spend more money or go and modify it to try and beat the other person next time, and it just rolls on to being a crazy, over-the-top build, with each person pushing each other. The show scene doesn’t really reward that any more, it seems, although it is certainly coming back. And those were the cars that would get in the magazines, and the crowds would stand around to look at and love it or hate it, and take it in.
Can you tell us about some of the standout cars you built or were involved with during that time?
I had always done things for people who came with silly ideas and hoped they would just trust me. But my RX-7 was certainly something different, and I love using Perspex, so I made Perspex seats and floors and even the first known wheels I got cut out of 25mm Perspex. A few years later, a wheel supplier sent me a photo of some people doing them in the States, and then I saw them on Pimp My Ride.
Making doors go sideways, roof chopping things to extremes, getting sued for putting the Louis Vuitton logos all over cars and stupid locations that were perfect for the show scene, hence when in every show that Toni put that car in. And recently, Paul’s Ford Anglia, where I had to start everything from scratch with no room to really work and install, make it stand out and fit enough product in it. We got to rebuild the Jonah Lomu Patrol, where we kept the main substructure but made new doors, new seats, lots of new things, and gave her a refresh, including exterior modifications. We also built multiple Soundstream demo cars, Pioneer car audio demo cars, Panasonic car audio display vehicles, but one of the coolest was the Toyota Hilux that I put DJ turntables into, with massive TVs, big potholes that go through the back window, laser-cut side steps with branding.
Most of the Fusion car audio demo cars in their era I did for them. I had the first 300C Chrysler that I put fish tanks in the back and right through the centre of the car for Big Boys Toys, and SPCA turned up to try and fine me. Crazy installs like in DAMLO, the silver mini truck, where I made Perspex female silhouettes as seats, crazy dash designs and other custom bits over it. Plus so many others; it is hard to keep track of, and I probably didn’t take enough photos or record enough of them, sadly, because they were just that common and I had so many on the go. It was just a factory of one after the other, and having friends with certain skill sets and workers like Andrew Stubbs, who can understand my crazy ideas, go with it, and mesh with me to help bring these to life.
Is there one particular build that stands out as your favourite or the one you’re most proud of? Why?
Definitely my RX-7, because even today at SEMA it would still hold its own. Every part on that car was changed bar the outer door skins. Roof-chopped with two RX-7 roofs and a BMW roof skin, the body kit added to and blended together, 13 TV screens, 50,000 watts for amplifiers, two-tone and half satin/gloss paint, and custom-made everything!
What went into creating these cars behind the scenes? Can you talk us through the planning, design, and build process?
I would ask what the customer was expecting and if there was anything they did want or did not want. Then, when the car arrives, I’ll just stare at it for sometimes up to a week, walking past it, and then sometimes you see a flicker out of the corner of your eye of a cool shape, or you look at the tail lights, the lines of the car and the flow of the curves around the licence plate relief, for instance, and try and relay that into the car. But because I would do most of the upholstery work, the finish work and the woodwork, I would have to allow for each stage, thinking ahead, when a lot of the other people would only do one part of it and get someone else to do the CNC machining, the upholstery, the fibreglass and the paintwork.
So this gave me a bit more control with the value and the cost of the build, knowing that I would not be able to upholster that angle like that, so I would change the angle, thinking ahead to the final step.
And the final steps of finishing and doing the little touches that make a big difference—and sometimes fixing a mistake leads to a much cooler cover-up job because you’ve had to think further outside the box. I usually go above and beyond what the customer is wanting or believing they were going to get, as it’s not just a financial gain, it’s more of a passion, and I would probably do it in my spare time, so I am lucky to be able to create things and put them out to the world like an artist puts a painting out in an art gallery. That’s how I feel about car shows in my work.
I understand that not everyone likes the same thing, but you hope that people can appreciate the work — that to one person it’s a practical car and to another it’s a piece of art — and that it can be interpreted in a lot of different ways. But it seems as though I’m pretty neutral about that, most of the time, luckily.
What do you think are the biggest differences now when it comes to the quality of gear, materials, and the way people approach building a serious system?
Now cars are really integrated and, in some cases, overly integrated, so with the introduction of DSPs (digital sound processors), we can tie into factory stereos and control everything from apps on your phone or laptops. And new stereos now are more just phone control units with equalisers in them. Speakers are pretty similar to what they were back in the day, with a few new refined materials. Amplifiers have got smaller and more efficient; a digital amplifier today is 90-per-cent efficient, and old-school analogue amplifiers were only 50-per-cent efficient, so they can now be smaller and use less power to create more power, which makes the build of the product cheaper too. There are now new hidden systems for classic cars that we can hide away, but not many brands are making those, and not many are innovating like they used to. When the money and the product were a lot more, they could spend a lot more on innovation.
Today it is much cheaper to do a system, as in you can spend $2,000 and end up with a reasonable system, when that would struggle to get you the head unit alone previously. But the labour cost on installation and materials has dramatically increased, so the cost is similar overall from back then, but just due to labour going up and the products going down. Brands have changed dramatically too; some brands that used to be good are now just empty shells with a badge stuck on them, so it’s our job to figure out which store has quality of build, as most brands have really simplified their ranges. The likes of MTX, who developed most of car audio in the ’70s, are one of the only ones still going and are owned by the same family. Alpine is innovating again; they had a break from it for a while but are now leading the way in dash entertainment and building high-end hidden-away units. Focal car audio is probably leading the way in high-end speakers and is a proper hi-fi brand building audio products, and Sony has now released all-new high-end stereos again for specialists only, so a few brands are coming back into the market, realising that car audio and luxury-level items are starting to pump again.
Plus, the cars have been so integrated, or needing custom fabrication in old cars, it’s making our industry pretty valuable and rare to have long-term knowledge that is hard to teach because there are so many variables. And cars went from being round holes with a basic stereo in 12 wires to fully integrated cars with CAN bus systems and electrical systems that only specialists really understand. So they have had to come back to specialist stores to get the jobs done properly, as you can blow your system in some cases just testing these kinds of systems. Before, you could buy a plug and just screw in the speakers, so everyone believed that they were professionals and we would have to fix the issues. But I really do like that people give it a go, like I did, and that’s how I learned, so I do try to push some younger automotive people to try it and learn some of the ins and outs, and hopefully some of them will get into the industry.
Now that I’m in a different store and I deal with high-end hi-fi as well as car audio, I understand things on a deeper level, so tying things together helps me understand audio in more ways. And now that people are after audio systems again and wanting full installs again, and the show scene seeming to be reigniting, I think the future looks pretty bright. I think I’ve also refined my skills a bit more and have become a bit more selective on the jobs, but it’s more finding time now and staff, plus businesses that can complement these kinds of installs and jobs. And letting people know that there is still someone around doing this kind of stuff, as most have moved on from it and just do the stuff that really makes the money.
What I found is the Japanese car market will spend up to a certain amount, with more rarely being big spenders. But now those people from their era have moved to old-school cars and can justify spending more money on them, or have more disposable income, plus they want the modern feel inside their vehicles. This is something I see at SEMA again, like it used to be, where stereo and installation is a must in every build, but keeping it classy and suited to the vehicle while giving you the modern luxuries. But I have a few cool cars coming out this year that are at a different level and a few passion projects, so I guess watch the space.
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Brendon Gilbert is still pumping out builds under Manawatu Soundhub in Palmerston North. If you’re looking to join the revival of the iconic 2000s show scene, hit him up and he’ll get you sorted: https://soundhub.co.nz/
