Emran Alborno Opens Up Car Tunes Atlanta: Hidden Radar, Focal Builds, and a Full Fab Shop

If you want to see how car audio in Atlanta gets done at the high end, Car Tunes Atlanta is the place to look. The shop has been at it since 1978. In part one of this conversation, co-owner Emran Alborno told the story of how it started and how he went from sweeping floors to running it. This episode is the walk-through.

Emran and his business partner took the Throttlecast crew from the showroom to the fab room to the office upstairs. Along the way: a radar install you can’t see, a yellow Bronco, and a carbon subwoofer box that fits exactly one kind of Ferrari.

The car audio showroom at Car Tunes Atlanta

The showroom has displays for Focal, JL Audio, Alpine, Kenwood, and more, plus wheels and performance parts. Each brand is laid out as a ladder, from a solid upgrade to the best of the best.

Focal runs from the entry-level Access series up through Polyglass and Kevlar to the Utopia line at the top. The Utopias are the speakers everyone asks about, and the display runs them on Mosconi amplifiers. With an open checkbook, that’s the combination.

One or two steps down is Alpine, which the shop calls tried and true. Even the basic speakers are a real upgrade over a factory paper cone, and the enclosures and subwoofers add more low end.

JL Audio sits in the middle to high end. It’s an American company, now part of Garmin, and the shop says the new money is going straight into research and development. The W7 subwoofer is still around. “So, 20 years ago, or 21 years ago when I started here, that was the best of the best,” Emran says. “Nothing’s changed.” For owners who don’t want to give up trunk space, a thin woofer like the TW1 fits where a normal sub won’t.

Tuning a system like an audio engineer

Helix is the brand for digital signal processing, and the shop calls it the best there is. A small black box gets wired into the car. After the install, a tech opens the software on a laptop and adjusts every level, with full time alignment.

That’s also how the demo works. A customer sits at the Helix station with a concert playing and tunes it live, the way an audio engineer would. Next to it is Blam, which Emran says was started by a group of engineers who left Focal. There are compact powered subwoofers that fit under a Jeep seat, a box that mounts to a Bronco tailgate, and an Alpine board where a customer can design a whole system.

Then there’s the carbon fiber subwoofer box built for a Ferrari 458 Speciale Aperta, with the carbon weave matched to the car. The owner sold the car, and the new owner didn’t want the box. It now sits in the showroom. If you have a 458 Aperta, it’s in stock.

A radar install you can’t see

This is the best thing in the building. One car in the shop has Escort’s latest custom-installed radar and laser system, and nothing about it looks aftermarket.

At the rear, the shop pops out the reflector, trims a little of the bumper, and clicks in a mount that copies the factory tabs. The laser sensor sits behind IR-transparent acrylic, so it’s invisible from outside. The piece looks flat, but it isn’t. It has a slight curve so it follows the bumper exactly. A tech designed it from scratch in 3D.

Some of it comes off the shop’s 3D printers, two Bambu Lab X1Cs and an H2D. A lot of it is built on the car and panel-bonded so it matches. The readout is built into the mirror, and the front sensors are integrated the same way. The goal is to look like the factory put it there.

The shop keeps a DragonEye laser gun and a regular radar gun on hand to make sure every system works.

A yellow two-door Bronco

The next build is a two-door Bronco finished in yellow. Two Focal subwoofers sit in a custom enclosure in the back, wrapped to match the seats. A speaker tower like you’d see on a wakeboard boat rides up top. The brackets are made for Broncos, so the shop painted them and bolted them on.

The seats are leather with a diamond pattern and yellow stitching. In the dash are Focal Kevlar speakers, which are bright yellow on their own. The car was yellow, and the speakers sounded great, so it all worked out. It has rock lights, yellow beadlock wheels, and a manual gearbox.

Dashes, sticky buttons, and older Ferraris

Car Tunes also handles interior repairs. Modern Ferraris are getting old enough to need it. Dashes shrink on 360s and 458s, and the luggage panel behind the seats of an F12 tends to peel.

Sticky buttons are handled in-house now. The shop used to take the parts out and send them away. Now the whole job stays in the building.

The fab shop behind the showroom

Behind the install bays is a wood shop where the shop designs and builds its boxes. There’s a CNC machine, router tables, and computers set up to cut and print. There’s a sandblasting table, a metal fabrication room with welders, a little upholstery, and a small paint area for small parts. Plexiglass and wood stock are stored on site. Dust collection runs to every station, and the whole room is sealed off from the main shop so the mess stays there.

The shop is fully air-conditioned and filtered. That’s rare for an install shop, and the people working in it notice.

Emran’s office

Up the stairs is Emran’s office. The walls are covered in Lego builds he’s made with his daughters, zip-tied to the wall so nobody walks off with them. There’s a Powered by Brabus sign and a retired F1 license plate. “I’ve had that tag in the family since ’96,” he says.

There’s also a Soul Performance GT3 exhaust and headers on display, some intakes due that week, and what he calls the smaller tower of Escort boxes. It was running low that day.

“There’s no other dealer that does as much radar as we do, and we’re very proud of that,” Emran says.

Watch the full episode

The full shop tour is above and on YouTube. For the history of the business, read part one with Emran Alborno, or visit Car Tunes Atlanta.

A build like that radar install deserves a good place to park. The Ride Lounge offers car storage in Atlanta, with climate-controlled, monitored bays in Peachtree Corners and Midtown, and a members’ lounge where Throttlecast is recorded. See how membership works.