My name is Dave Bayes and I am 39 years old and from Mansfield Ohio. I am a General Motors employee, with 12 years as a Wood Pattern Maker and the past 8 years as a Machine Repairman. Over the past 14 years I have also owned and operated 3 different computer companies. One company was Bayesco Computer Systems; I designed and built new computer systems for home and office applications. The other two companies, (ACES Inc. and Computer Junkyard,) were consulting, service, and re-sale companies. I am also the proud owner of a true one-of-a-kind 2000 Trans Am convertible which was created by my 15 year old son, Seth Bayes and myself. My very unique background in design and mechanical skilled trades coupled with my 23 years of computer experience compelled me to create TECH TA.

I purchased my Trans Am used in May of 2004. The car only had 23,000 miles and was in near perfect condition. In September 2004 I started the research and design process for a completely changed dash and console including a clay model of the first design of the fiberglass bubble to be placed on the dash for the new placement of the stereo. By early October I had purchased many of the components of the TECH TA retrofit and the actual tear down started on October 20, 2004.

Every thing was removed from the interior of the vehicle. The factory stereo and heater controls were removed to make room for the new Lilliput 8 touch screen monitor for the computer system. The screen was attached to a factory trim ring using plastic welding technique. The passenger side air bag was removed to make room for the LOGIC Supply EPIA Mini-ITX computer system complete with DVD drive, 512 Megs of RAM, 160 Gig hard drive and many other features. One of the most challenging items was the redesign of the center console and the re-location of the heater controls, the relocation of the power top switch, the addition of a touch pad for the computer, and switches for the strobe lights and the color morphics lights. The glove box was removed to make room for a Gyration wireless keyboard which folds down or can be removed for use. The computer was also hooked to the cars diagnostic port with an OBD-II decoder box for onscreen diagnostics and gauges. XM-PCR was added to give me XM through the computer displaying all channels and what is playing on each one and giving me the ability to select them by touching the screen. The fiberglass bubble on top of the dash has a recessed pocket on the back for the Microsoft GPS receiver for on screen location and directions. I have a cellular PCMCIA card that will fit in the computer to give broadband internet access through Verizon, however I have opted not to use it to avoid the use of virus software which would slow the computer down, and I will just keep that in my laptop. I added circuitry which starts the computer with the car and shuts it down (through Windows) when the car is turned off. I also added a variable buck boost transformer to keep the computer voltage at or above 12 volts at all times even when the battery is down to 10 volts. I can do everything on this computer that you can do on your home computer plus many other things.

The sound system was a difficult decision process because there are so many good receivers and speaker systems and all have unique features that were appealing to me. I decided to go with Sony’s top of the line receiver and Infinity’s top of the line speaker systems. The SONY XPLOD FLIP CD MP3 PLAYER CDX-M9905X was chosen for the wide LCD monitor which gave me the ability to add a wide angle rear view camera in the trunk keyhole. The rear view shows at all times on the stereo. The controls and information are superimposed over the rear view (really cool.) The receiver was mounted in a custom built fiberglass bubble on the top of the dash. This required the reforming of the vent duct work for clearance, sounds simple but it wasn’t. The speaker system is composed of not one but two sets of Infinity Kappa Perfect component sets (6.1’s in the front and 5.1’s in the rear). That gave me four mid-range and four tweeters in the car. Then we added two Kappa Perfect 12 subs in the trunk (12DVQ) in their own custom built fiberglass sealed boxes. There is also a 1.2 farad capacitor and crossovers in the trunk. The subs have individual Infinity amps with remote level controls above the receiver on the dash. This allows me to decide how much bass I want. The component speakers are driven by a third Infinity amp in the trunk. The total RMS wattage is around 1400. The speakers were selected for sound quality and not decibel pressure although when turned up to -18db it’s still too loud for me (I’m old). The entire inside of the vehicle including the floorboard was covered with Dynomat Extreme sound deadening material. This eliminates residual vibration noise and keeps the sound in the car (as much as possible).