[captain_canuck33]

I did a similar upgrade to my 08 C2S Cab last year, but I chose a different head unit (Alpine ILX-107). I picked that head unit for two reasons: 1) I’m a huge fan of Alpine Sound quality and (2) wireless Carplay. I’m an Apple guy, and this is my car so Carplay was important.

I did it myself over the course of a Sunday afternoon. It wasn’t massively challenging, so long as you followed closely the instructions you will find on Rennlist forums. Mine was also Bose, and so I hummed and hawed most of the winter, trying to decide if I would bridge the fibre optic network between the head unit and the amplifier, or it I would just replace the amplifier as well (it takes in a digital signal via fibre optic).

In the end, I bought a $100 adapter off of Ebay to bridge the connections, and it worked just fine. For reference, your stock head unit uses a Fibre Optic network to send pure digital signal to the digital Bose Amp. The Alpine/Pioneer/Aftermarket head unit does not have this connection – it only has RCA connections out of it. So you have to bridge it with something.

It was tricky, but not impossible, and I got it all right on the first try.

The other thing I needed was that the Alpine installation requires a connection into your brake lights wire because Alpine only lets you access the advanced settings of teh unit if your handbrake is on (ie you are stopped). A $15 defeater (again on Ebay) fixed that problem, and I just wired it into the install.

Bottom line was that the sound quality went from marginal to beautiful, using the same amplifier and speakers as stock. That is to say, the amp and speakers aren’t the problem; it’s the stock head unit that sounds like crap.

Yes, I did lose the navigation details in the tachometer display, but I don’t care. Carplay more than makes up for that.

[captain_canuck33]

From Environment Canada’s website, 5pm Friday:

Dangerous winter driving conditions are expected on untreated roads Saturday and Sunday.

Surfaces such as highways, roads, walkways and parking lots will become icy, slippery and extremely hazardous. If you must travel, keep others informed of your schedule and destination and carry an emergency kit and mobile phone. Beware of branches or electrical wires that could break under the weight of ice. Extended and widespread utility outages are possible. For information on emergency plans and kits go to http://www.getprepared.gc.ca/

If it is too dangerous to travel to the event tomorrow, I expect UCR to either issue a refund or at least a credit towards a future event.

[captain_canuck33]

I’m worried about actually getting there. I’ve got summer tires, and environment Canada has issued a freezing rain warning, with 5cm of ice pellet accumulation.

This is shaping up to be the worst ice storm we will have seen all year. I would think twice about going out in freezing rain/ice pellets in my 4×4 F150, let alone my 911 with summer tires. Despite having sunk almost $900 into tomorrows day (registration and insurance), I’d really rather not die/wreck on the way there or home tomorrow.

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