458 Scuderia Audio 458 Stealth Amplifier Sneak Peek

I took a closer look at the 488.
As stated before, there is some sort of controller box located right above the battery, hanging from some bracket. However, there is a cavernous area above the battery, and this controller can easily be relocated. If someone was in a pinch, the controller could easily be just zip tied out of the way. The next time I am on site, I'll try to make a prototype bracket out of tin and get it to my CAD guy. Once the controller is relocated, my new amp shelf/amp will fit perfectly.

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The rep sent the part number for the larger connectors, I ordered 100 from Mouser and had them overnighted.

 

Actually, it's not clear to me either LOL.
However, this is the end goal (to make a harness for the Italia). I'm working on a Speciale at the moment because the offer was extended to me to work on it. I did wire up an audio system for a 458 Spider but that was a couple of years ago. I had no plans at that time to try to develop a harness for the car, and the owner had no problem allowing me to cut the speaker wires coming out of the InfoTainment box to hook up the system. I never even disconnected the plug. My point is that I know how to remove the glove box, glove box liner, CD player, etc. to get at the InfoTainment box. I guarantee that the amplifier/amp shelf will fit an Italia, but I am not sure whether the plugs for the Speciale InfoTainment box are the same for the Italia. The InfoTainment boxes do have different part numbers, as does the 488 InfoTainment box.
If you'd like to come over one day this weekend, we can work on the car together for about an hour, and I guarantee you it will become clear to us whether this particular harness will work or not. And if it doesn't, I can get enough information and pictures from your connectors to be able to spec out the parts to make an Italia harness, and you would be eligible for a deep discount on a sound system upgrade. All I need to do is pull out the InfoTainment box, unplug the connector, take some close up pictures of the connectors, and reassemble. Easy peasy.

 

This is why I love Ferrari Chat!!!

 

Eric is made of solid gold! Lots of appreciation to him for our recon mission last night.
I have already spec'd out the Italia connectors, both the male and female are available (as opposed to the Unobtainium Speciale connectors).
I have a commitment tonight but tomorrow night my CAD guy (who is in Oregon) and I will have a Skype meeting to discuss the bracket modifications. The only difference between the Speciale bracket and the Italia bracket is the location of the mounting hole for the vertical tab in the back. Easy peasy mod. Will have an aluminum prototype fabricated this week and test fit on the Italia (takes all of 5 minutes). Meanwhile, the Italia connectors will be arriving later on this week. I will be developing harnesses for Italias without the JBL option, Italias with the JBL option, and folks who have the JBL option but want to completely bypass the JBL amplifier (which is exactly what I would do if I had an Italia with the JBL option).
Will definitely be making an install video for the Italia. There are a couple of tricks that, if you know them, removing and reinstalling the InfoTainment box is a breeze, so they will be covered in the video.

 

I picked up the aluminum prototype amplifier shelf for the Italia and 458 Spider. Looks good. Hopefully I can test fit it sometime this weekend. It literally takes 5 minutes or less to get in there.

 

The aluminum prototype fit well except for the vertical mounting tab which was a bit off. The changes are small enough that I already put in the order for stainless steel production pieces.

 

I am definitely not cut out to be an electronics assembler. It took me two days to construct these two harnesses. I need to test them in actual cars before I put these on my website. The harness on the top is for an Italia or 458 Spider (without the JBL option), the harness on the bottom is for a Speciale or Aperta. It's basically a pass through except for the speaker wires. In fact, if you plug both of the small Molex plugs together, it is a pure pass through. This is nice for folks who want to upgrade their car stereo amplifier but don't want to cut into the wires in their own factory harness. All you do is unplug the connector from the InfoTainment unit, plug the female end of this harness into the InfoTainment, plug the other end into the factory harness, plug the small male Molex connector into the input section of any aftermarket amplifier, and plug the small female Molex connector into the output section of the aftermarket amp.
If you ever sell the car, either remove this harness completely, or leave it in and just plug the small Molex connectors into each other to give the new owner the option of adding their own aftermarket amplifier if they desire.

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We test fit the stainless production amplifier shelf. It fits absolutely perfect. Look how lined up the vertical tab mounting hole is with the standoff on the firewall.
The amp also fits perfect. Lots of room. I know the mounting bolts are too long (you can see them sticking out underneath) but I just grabbed any M4 fasteners to test fit. I have the correct length of fasteners on deck.

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Good question!
You should make sure your Focal 6 1/2" drivers will fit first. I tried several speakers and the only ones I could find that fit were the ultra thin Morel Virtus Nano Carbon drivers. I did develop a product to replace the tiny speakers back there but sales were slow because the product is just so expensive. I took it off of my website for awhile. I put it back up there in case you want to look at the pictures and get some ideas.
If all you need is an amplifier to power those two rear speakers, most people just mount a Pico 2 amp in the back near the speakers. The amp is so small that there is plenty of room for it. You can see what I mean in my install video for the 458 Spider rear speakers kit.
458 Spider Subwoofer | Scuderiaaudio.com
Amplifier Ferrari | Scuderiaaudio.com
Scuderia Audio 458 Spider Hidden Subwoofer System Installation - YouTube
Hope this helps.

 

Good news regarding the 488. The electronic control box that is mounted above the battery is simply a trickle charger. They installed it in that location in only one year, and it was an option. If someone happens to have that year with that option and they want to install the amp shelf, they can just Velcro the charger onto the top of the amp. Most 488s will have the charger mounted somewhere else.

 

The Pico is crossed over at a fixed 80 hz. I would run it full range and connect a passive crossover network between the speaker and the amplifier. The crossover should have been included with the speakers. The crossover will allow the speaker to give you midrange while protecting the speaker from very low frequencies which could damage it.

 

It looks like the 488 harness idea is a bust. I took some high resolution pictures of the harness connector that plugs into the JBL amplifier and sent the part number to a rep at the OEM for the connector. She informed me that this is a restricted product. She can't even give me pricing information without a letter of authorization.
Also, when I tried to test fit the 458 harness, we realized that the connectors, although identical in appearance, are slightly larger than the 458 connectors. I'm still researching to see if I can find the 458 pieces but would not be surprised if they too are restricted products. I was able to successfully test fit the harness on the Speciale, however.

 

Thank you. I really tried.

 

This really isn't the thread for this. PM me and I'll help you all I can.

 

I installed one of my complete systems (including the Mosconi amplifier on the battery shelf) in a Speciale this weekend. Easiest install ever. The stereo sounds phenomenal. Taking the pieces off to gain access to the battery and infoTainment box, installing the shelf and the amp, hooking up the wires and reassembling the car took less than two hours. It takes much longer to uncover the infoTainment box than it does to install the amp/shelf/harnesses.