Designed and built by Alpine’s Advanced Application R & D team of Steve Brown and Gary Bell, with help by Glenn Swackhamer from Alpine of Canada, the Sinister 6 carries on the tradition of show-stopping vehicles emanating from Alpine’s North American headquarters in Torrance, CA. The Sinister 6’s silhouette, motorization, and paint scheme given the car mysterious undertones. The striking shape of the car was created entirely by hand, using none of the BMW’s stock bodywork. The front, rear, and sides of the Sinister 6 are shaped from fiberglass to give the car a low, mean, aggressive appearance. Over 9” was added to the width of the body to accommodate the huge Boyd Coddington wheels and massive Brembo brakes, and the roof was lowered 5 inches as well.
The front, rear, and sides of the Sinister 6 are shaped from fiberglass to give the car a low, mean, aggressive appearance. Over 9” was added to the width of the body to accommodate the huge Boyd Coddington wheels and massive Brembo brakes, and the roof was lowered 5 inches as well. Upon further inspection, it becomes obvious that the inside of the Sinister 6 is just as highly customized as the exterior. The car is a roadster, meaning there is no roof to interrupt the flowing lines of the body, so it’s easy to get a good look at the interior.
The single seat is located in the center of the car, and it is housed in a 5” circular fiberglass enclosure. Behind the seat enclosure is a large window through which nine PDX series amplifiers are located, including 8 PDX-1.1000’s and 1 PDX-4.150. Another obvious omission is a steering wheel, but that’s no problem because the Sinister 6 is steered electrically via a joystick to the right of the driver’s seat. The next question is the most obvious one—how is it possible to get inside this outrageous vehicle to enjoy the huge Alpine multi-media system? The answer is as simple as the touch of a button, which sends a command to simultaneously slide the top of the car back 27” and rotate the center seat 90 degrees.
The seat’s rotation exposes an opening in the front of the seat housing to allow a single lucky passenger to get inside for a heavy dose of multi-media nirvana. A surprise is revealed in the seat’s open position—a PDX-2.150, a PDX-4.150, and an iPod® nano are all built into a secret compartment behind the driver’s seat. Another touch of the remote button rotates the seat back to driving position and slides the top forward, at which point the Sinister 6 is locked and loaded. The Sinister 6 is not just steel and fiberglass eye candy — it also houses a complete Alpine multi-channel audio, video and navigation system. A look at the car’s interior raises the question, ”Where is the dash?” The dash was actually removed and custom-built around five 10” monitors form the Alpine PKG-1000 rear seat entertainment package.
These five screens are protected by a curved piece of smoked plexiglass, to create a smooth, continuous look. The screens display DVD entertainment from the DVA-5210 DVD player, navigation from the NVE-N872A DVD navigation system, or the footage from the rear view cameras on each side of the car.
Even with these modifications, the Sinister 6 has only begun to rear its foreboding head – or lack thereof. There is no head unit in this car. Instead, the new Alpine Vehicle Hub Pro (VPA-B222) OEM integration system is used as the controller for the car’s system. Vehicle Hub Pro unit is a hide-away box that brings Ai-NET inputs, an AM/FM tuner, a dedicated navigation input, an iPod full speed input, and powerful tuning capabilities into OEM systems. The sources are controlled by a wired rotary commander, called an orb, which comes with the Vehicle Hub Pro unit. The orb is installed on the left side of the driver’s seat, and the output from the Vehicle Hub Pro is also displayed on the five-monitor array in the dash.
Despite being headless, the Sinister 6 still has a full multi-channel audio system. A PXA-H701 digital processor brings Dolby™, Dolby Pro Logic II™ and DTS™ decoding into the mix. The circular seat houses SPX-107R speakers for the front channels in a midrange – tweeter – midrange (MTM) configuration. Two SPX-17MB mid-bass kits reinforce the bottom end of the front sound stage from their enclosures on each side of the driver’s seat. The center channel, which consists of half of an SPX-107R component system, is located in the dash flanking the five 10” monitors. One last set of SPX-107R’s is housed behind the driver’s seat to round out the multichannel sound experience.
Of course, a car like this wouldn’t be complete without a serious subwoofer system, and the Sinister 6 delivers. Four SWX-1242D 12” subwoofers, each powered by two PDX-1.1000’s, are mounted under the tail section of the car where they are loaded at the ground for maximum impact. The sub enclosure is vented, with the massive port exiting right behind the driver’s head. 8000 watts of clean PDX bass power makes sure that the Sinister 6 is heard long before it is seen. Other unique modifications include two 10” monitors from the PKG-1000 installed in place of taillights, and mesh grilles with laser-cut Alpine logos on the front, sides, and back of the car made by Precision Grills.
Custom airbrush art by Noah sets the tone for the car’s dark and mysterious look, sprayed over House of Kolor black base. Color sanding and detailing of the House of Kolor clearcoat was supplied by Kevin Brown and Jason Rose from Meguiar’s. Coast Airbrush supplied the House of Kolor products in addition to many related supplies. Custom–made Boyd Coddington wheels measuring a massive 24×10” in front and 26×13” in the rear are wrapped with Falken ZiEX S/TZ tires and give the car an aggressive look. Brembo brake kits are used in the front and rear. Monster Cable wiring is used exclusively throughout the Alpine system.
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