Sony XAV-9000ES Apple CarPlay + Android Auto retrofit
Have you ever wondered if it was possible to retrofit Apple CarPlay +Android Auto to a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti? Perhaps, if you’re one of the handful of people out there that owns one of these rare vehicles. Only 3,025 were produced between 2004 and 2011. This supercar was designed to be a cruising vehicle featuring a more spacious and comfortable interior with room for 4 passengers. Powered by 532-horsepower 5.7-liter V12, you can cruise in comfort from zero to 60 in 4.1 seconds!
As you effortlessly weave in and out of traffic and your passengers grip the fine, Italian leather seating holding on for their dear lives, you may think it’s a perfect time to pop on some tunes. But what’s up with the radio? The tuner isn’t pulling in any local stations. The CD player isn’t working. And there is no way to stream any music from your phone. Well that kind of sucks.
Factory Bose Stereo Ferrari 612
The Ferrari 612 is equipped with a decent speaker and amp setup. It features a 10-inch subwoofer in the rear deck plus another one in the passenger floor. There is an adequate number of full range speakers situated throughout the cabin. When paired with an aftermarket head unit, the Bose amp and speakers come to life providing a pleasant amount of output and acoustical range. It’s not your typical “no high’s, no low’s, must be Bose”. For the few Scaglietti drivers out there who have replaced their stereo, they typically gravitate towards a single DIN style receiver.
This is a good idea if you want to retain the ability to put the factory radio back in place. But let’s face it. As of the time of this writing, there aren’t any decent single DIN receivers that look remotely good in this interior. Models from major brand names like Alpine, Sony, Kenwood, Pioneer, etc. all look too flashy and tacky for a car like this. Perhaps an old Nakamichi CD-400 would look appropriate. Even if you could find one, it wouldn’t provide any way to connect your phone and thus no ability to stream any of the music apps we’ve grown so accustomed to having available at our beck and call.
So what’s the solution?
If there aren’t any period appropriate single DIN Bluetooth models, and we’re so used to the convenience of Apple CarPlay, Android Auto with park assist cameras, why not try and retrofit that modern tech into this car? When our client sent us this initial picture of his dash, my immediate thought was if we just eliminate the pocket we can fit a double DIN in that space. How we were going to do that? I wasn’t quite sure, but I knew once we saw it in person, we would be able to figure it out. One thing I did know is this would be a permanent modification to the OEM radio bezel. The client understood this. He pointed out that the original trim was available for a whopping $507.94 if he desired to restore it back to original equipment.
Upon closer inspection
After the Ferrari 612 arrived, John and I had a closer look. We immediately noticed whoever previously tried to service the original radio damaged the trim slightly. The radio was no longer locking in place and there were hairline cracks in 2 locations that needed to be shored up. Once that was done, John and I began looking at what we had and argued discussed the best way to transform this bezel into a clean, double DIN stereo housing.
John wanted to use plastic and filler to flesh out the gap, but I had a different take on it. I wanted to keep it simpler. To me it didn’t look like it would be absolutely necessary to use filler. I begged him to try it my way first. As two stubborn and passionate people that can get lost in the details, I knew using filler would be a rabbit hole time suck aiming for absolute and unattainable perfection.

I had set aside a Pioneer ATDVA-133 universal double DIN mounting kit with trim ring and he agreed this would be the best way to hold the stereo in the dash. But with the pocket door removed, we needed to fill in the space below and have it look seamless. Looking at the bezel together, I showed John we only needed a small rectangular piece to line up at the edges to fill in the gap.
John took a piece of HDPE plastic and cut it to size. It appeared that would fill the gap nicely. He removed some of the texture on the plastic and painted it to match the dash trim as close as possible. As a really great afterthought, he removed the emblem from the original pocket and added that to the new lower trim. Like other Ferrari models, the 612 uses a standard euro harness 70-1784, so the wiring is straight forward. That is probably the only straight forward thing about this car.
Why use the Sony XAV-9000ES?
In order to try and keep the stereo looking like it was always meant to be there, I steered the client towards the Sony XAV-9000ES for a couple reasons. I am partial to the matte black finish on the few buttons it does have. I also like that this stereo actually has buttons and isn’t entirely touch screen.
The Ferrari 612 doesn’t have steering wheel controls for the stereo. Therefore it’s nice to be able to reach over and feel a button when you want to adjust volume vs having to look at the screen to see what you’re doing. The illumination on the buttons is a neutral white backlight, but for the true minimalist, even that can be disabled/turned off. And with wireless connectivity, the USB C is available for optional charging so you don’t have to see any cables if you don’t want to – only when you need to charge.
John and I both felt the factory 12 volt outlet would be the best place to retrofit the Sony’s USB C which provides a 3 amp fast charge. On top of that, the client asked us for a secondary USB C charging port. John was able to flush mount a secondary USB C charger inside the Ferrari 612 armrest console.
The great thing about putting the USB C in place of the 12 volt outlet is it is completely reversible. With rare and classic vehicles, that is something that is always front of mind for me. How can I do this upgrade in the least invasive manner that is also reversible? John was able to pop out the original 12 volt outlet and return it to the client should we ever need to revert it back to stock.

That secondary USB C isn’t easily reversible, but it is tucked away and hidden inside the armrest console. If it did need to be removed in the future for any reason, we could plug the opening with a matte black retainer clip. Or I’m sure the client could replace that center armrest insert from Ferrari parts for an absurd amount of money.
Front and Rear Park Assist Cameras
When you’re driving an extremely rare supercar, you probably take extreme precaution in any parking situation. Aside from paint protection film (which this car has, but will soon be replaced – you can see from close up pics that it did its job), front and rear park assist cameras can be extremely helpful to prevent mishaps. The Sony XAV-9000ES has a reverse trigger wire. John connected that to the reverse light in the Ferrari so just like any modern vehicle, when the client puts the car in reverse, the rear camera automatically engages.

We used the Echomaster PHD5N1 for both the front and rear cameras. We use these cameras in a lot of our builds. They are analog HD. When used with Stinger’s IX210 or IX212 head unit, you can get full 720P resolution. When used with a standard 7-inch aftermarket head unit like this Sony, the resolution is 480P. Aside from the resolution, one of the main reasons I like this camera is that it comes with various mounting options.

Both housings John used are clean and look appropriate on this vehicle. Nothing makes me cringe more than a big, fat ugly license plate bar camera going across the top of a license plate. We don’t carry anything like that at our shop, but we’ve seen plenty of installs featuring hideous looking cameras and I’ll never understand why. If you’re going to go through the trouble and effort to add a front or rear camera, why not try and make it look like it actually belongs on the car?

We feel that both cameras on this Ferrari 612 Scaglietti are mounted in a way that blends in without marring the vehicle appearance. There is one drawback on the front camera input with the Sony XAV-9000ES. Technically the front camera would be manually triggered from the touch screen when you wish to see it displayed. However, the client requested if there was a way to re-purpose the old phone button on the center console to activate it.

Straight out of the gate I said “Probably not, but John needs to open it up and see if it is something he can use to trigger a relay to activate”. In many vehicles what looks like a simple momentary or latched switch can actually be part of a larger circuit. In this case, it actually wasn’t that complicated and genius that John is, he was able to make it happen. It’s super cool! And quite convenient.

Retrofitting wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto with front and rear park assist cameras in a rare supercar is not something we get to do every day. This was definitely a very fun, challenging and time consuming installation. Throughout the process John tightened up and added missing hardware where needed and replaced damaged one time use retainer clips that another mechanic had previously tried to re-use. You never know what you’re going to find working on an old, rare vehicle. But it’s a project we were honored to take on.

To learn more about what we can do for your vehicle, call or text our shop, Sounds Incredible Mobile in Brookfield, CT, at 203-778-3330. We’re happy to help you explore the options that would make your vehicle – whether that’s your daily driver, weekend summer fun car or rare supercar – even more enjoyable to drive.
