Clear Star Media Group was founded by car enthusiasts, and was one of the first liaisons was with Junction Produce in Japan, assisting in bringing their products and the VIP scene to the US. Clear Star has now expanded its focus to include the luxury market and applying the VIP theme without limiting its creativity.
This Lexus '06 GS300 features plenty of mods like the Job Design bumpers, Admiration carbon front grill and Junction Produce spoilers, along with Carbon fiber accents throughout. Performance wise Mark added an HKS intake and Aimgain (Japan) dual exhaust. The rims are Advan RS-D's, 20" x 9" in the front and 20" x 10.5" in the rear wrapped in Vredestein Sessanta tires. Underneath you have the F-Sport brakes. For suspension Mark went with JIC Magic FLT-FAS Coilovers plus F-Sport Sway Bars and a Crown Upper Strut Bar.
The cosmetic and performance changes were easy. The audio install was a different matter. As Mark says, "The installs [in his demo car projects] always had the look I was after, but they never quite lived up to the sound quality I was seeking." He really wanted to improve the sound with this vehicle. He called Stuart Levine at Harman International (which makes the Levinson system for Lexus) for some help. It was he who recommended using the JBL MS8 on the system. Stuart mentioned that the Mark Levinson system had so many dedicated channels of amplification that they needed a way to sum them together. The MS8 would be able to handle the task and whole lot more. "His last words were, 'Trust me, you won't be disappointed,'" Mark says. And he acknowledges that Stuart was right.
James Griffin of Clear Star Media Group in Maple Shade, NJ secured a JBL MS-8 for the project. James is a veteran of the car audio world, and had been involved in Mark's last three builds. What the guys collectively ended with was a car that not only looked great, but also would sound amazing.
They kept the factory source and integrated the MS-8, which now effectively controls the audio system. Clear Star mounted the controller display at the bottom of the center stack. The audio signal is now powered by the Infinity Kappa Four 4-channel, the Kappa One subwoofer amp and by the JBL MS-8, which has an internal amplifier.
The Levinson speakers were displaced in favor of Infinity Kappa 60.9CS 6-½ components in the factory locations. The same speakers were also used in the rear. For some real bass, Mark chose a pair of Infinity Kappa 100.9W subwoofers. That's clearly the highlight of the custom install, the trunk which highlights the subwoofer system with the multi-tier amprack and custom acrylic cover.
In the end Mark was able to achieve his ultimate goal, to not only create an aftermarket vehicle that had the right look, but also the right sound. And considering the vehicle (and audio system) he selected for the project, it was an ambitious goal that he was able to pull off, thanks to the help of Harman and Clear Star.
via carandaudio
