LET'S FANTASIZE for a moment. Say you own a $60,000 Porsche. Would you let someone drill holes in it? Jay Patel did. But he didn't turn over his '90 911 Carrera 2 to just anybody-he did some scouting first.

Patel, a 20-year-old business student, took a long look at install shops before settling on Sounds Good Stereo & Security in Canoga Park, California. His conclusion: Sounds Good was competent enough to tap into the Carrera's electrical system without hindering the car's performance. And perform it does. The six-cylinder, 3.6-liter rear-mounted engine delivers 247 horsepower, hits a top speed of 162 mph, and reaches 60 mph in only 5.5 seconds. That makes it the most powerful normally aspirated engine in use in a production 911.

The need for a high-performance security system was pretty obvious: Expensive white Porsche especially those with 1,200-watt stereos--attract thieves like moths to a flame. Patel wasn't interested in simple functionality, though; he wanted a system that had as much flair as the Carrera.

Isaac Goren, Sounds Good's owner, responded with a carefully crafted system built around Alpine's Model 8080 security system. Highlights of the $5,000 rig:

Warning LEDs were mounted in unexpected places on the door-lock stalks, between the front and rear side windows, and inside the housing of the Porsche's third brake light; the brake light looks like it's flashing when the security system is activated.

A mounting board shows off the security system's components. The installers arranged these components with style, treating them like amplifiers and crossovers. The mounting board is located on the floor of the Porsche's front trunk and concealed under a removable, carpeted panel; the panel is secured by a keyoperated factory hood lock.

The remote control is really flexible. In addition to raising or lowering the car's spoiler to facilitate cleaning, it can be used to lock the doors and close the windows, open the windows completely, or open them only a few inches (to vent out hot air).

The Model 8080 is compatible with Alpine's Model 8316 Communicator and Model 8202 pager. "Patel picked this combo because it does everything he wants it to do," Goren says. "The 8080 also has the nicest looking keypad of any alarm."

One of the things Patel wanted the system to do was warn him of theft attempts when he was too far away to hear the 8080's 123-dB siren. The answer: Alpine's Communicator and pager. Whenever the security system is triggered, both components spring into action. The Communicator instructs Patel's mobile phone to call a preprogrammed number and alert him to the trouble, using a synthesized voice to tell him that his car is being violated. "He can even program it to call him in India, where he often goes to visit relatives," Goren notes, emphasizing the Communicator's versatility.

After he receives the call, Patel can listen in through the car phone's hands-free microphone to confirm that a break-in actually is taking place. At this point, the smart thing to do is call the police. If Patel isn't around when the Communicator calls but is within about a mile of the car, the pager will alert him by beeping and flashing its LED. The pager even indicates which securitysystem sensor detected the violation. To extend the pager system's range to 1 mile, Sounds Good linked the pager to the car phone's globe-style antenna, which was mounted on the roof above the third brake light. The extended range is more than adequate to cover the distance between the parking lot of Patel's school and his classroom.

The Communicator has more tricks up its sleeve. Patel can use any touchtone phone to call the Carrera and make sure the security system is armed. If it isn't, he can arm the system over the phone as well as command it to lock the car's doors and roll up its windows. He can even use the phone to crack the windows to cool off the car before he gets there. In addition, he can command the system to run a self-diagnostic check to make sure that its sensors are functioning properly.

Three sensors handle most of the detection work. Alpine's Model 8327 shock sensor, which is mounted under the hood near the passenger-side shock tower, detects sharp blows to the Carrera's keylocks and windows. The Model 8322 motion sensor, which is mounted next to the shock sensor, notices when someone jacks the Porsche up to steal its tires or tow it away. Finally, Flash Protection's HF-600 microwave sensor, which is mounted behind the center console in the passenger compartment, spreads a field of harmless microwaves through the car's interior; it triggers the alarm whenever a largish mass--an arm, for example, but not a leaf--disrupts the field. The HF-600 comes into play whenever Patel leaves the Carrera with its top down or its windows open.

Basic protection is provided by pin switches wired to the Model 8080. Factory pin switches are located in the doors and hood, while an aftermarket pin switch Alpine's Model 8311 - covers the trunk.

Goren Devised two fail-safe measures to keep the entire security system from being disabled: a back-up siren and two back-up batteries, which also power Patel's sound system. To keep power flowing to the security system when a thief tries to disconnect or drain the primary battery, the installers wired the system to two G&S PS-6 6-volt gel-cell batteries; the batteries are mounted under the sound system's subwoofer enclosure, which replaces the Carrera's basically useless rear seat. "They're not accessible," Goren says of the batteries, "but they get air, which prevents a [potentially dangerous] build-up of gases."

The back-up siren, Dalme's Model 607, belts out at a level of 128 dB, and it comes with its own built-in battery. The installers mounted it under the dash beneath the glove compartment, and it wails automatically whenever someone tries to disconnect the security system from the primary battery; since this is usually attempted from inside a car, the under-dash mounting location puts the siren near an intruder's ears.

Mounting the back-up siren proved to be a challenge. While there was adequate space under the glove compartment, a nearby fuel line prohibited the installers from bolting the siren directly to the firewall. Their solution was to fabricate a C-shaped bracket and attach the siren to a metal support behind the dash.

The siren is also accessible to Patel. "If he has to disconnect power to the car for servicing," Goren explains, "he can reach under the dash and use the supplied key to turn the siren off."

Mounting the siren was easy compared to the other install problems, though. Building this system required enormous creativity and skill and an intimate knowledge of factory electronic systems-qualities that only experienced installers have. There wasn't any room in the passenger compartment for the cellular phone's transceiver, for example, so the installers made room.

"We couldn't put it under either seat," Goren explained, "because factory computer modules were in the way." The answer was to cut out floor insulation until the 1 x 5 x 8-inch transceiver fit. "We cut away 11/2 inches of insulation in front of the passenger seat, dropped the transceiver into this makeshift hole, and covered it with a quarter-inch pad. The floor still has the same feel," Goren adds. "And the transceiver is very close to the front seat, so it's really tough to step on it."

Installing those flashing LEDs on the Carrera's body also required a lot of skill not to mention steady hands. "The windows were tinted very dark, and we wanted the LED's to be visible from outside," Goren says by way of explaining his decision to go with exterior LED's. A 3/16-inch LED from VSE's Derringer system was Rush mounted just above the Carrera emblem between the front and rear windows on each side of the car.

"We drilled 3/16-inch holes and used silicone instead of hex nuts to hold the LEDs in place. The install looks really clean," Goren notes. "if you're a foot away, you can't see the LED. It looks like part of the emblem." The holes were drilled from the outside, but the LED's and silicone were inserted from the inside after the installers removed an interior panel.

Dropping an LED into the third brake light wasn't a piece of cake, either. It was glued to the bottom of the brake light's housing and angled back to reflect off its rear surface. "You can't see it flash in daylight, but the whole light looks like it's flashing at night," Goren says. They didn't secure the LED with a bracket, he adds, since the bracket's shadow would have appeared on the brake light's lens.

Their knowledge of automotive electrical systems came into play with the doorlock LEDs. Goren wanted to use the ones that came with the stock security system, but this turned out to be a problem. He discovered that the factory LEDs operate with voltages somewhat lower than the 12 volts provided by the typical custom security system. As a Porsche spokesman explained, the stock LED's work on a principle called induction: A low-voltage signal is "broadcast" to each LED by a coil that's wrapped around-but doesn't actually touch -- each door-lock stalk The problem is that the security system's 12 volts will fry the coil. After a little investigation. the installers solved the problem by wiring the security system's LED-output wires to the coils and matching voltage levels via in-line resistors.

The LED's were the only part of the stock security system that Sounds Good left in place. "Factory alarms are known to malfunction, which confuses owners who've upgraded to one of our alarms but left the stock system intact," Goren explains. "When the factory alarm goes off, the guy thinks it's our alarm. Then he tries to turn our alarm off-but he unwittingly turns it on. Then he can't start the car, and we get blamed."

Knowledge of electronics was also needed when the installers interfaced the Alpine system with the Carrera's motorized spoiler, which automatically rises when the car hits 55 mph. A stock switch let Patel raise and lower the spoiler for cleaning, but only when the car was turned on or its key was set to the IGNITION position. Now Patel can use the security system's remote control to change the spoiler's position at any time.

It took the installers a lot of time to figure this one out. Eventually, though, they found four output wires leading from an electronic module to the spoiler's motor. They ended up soldering additional wires to the same points as the stock wires, running their wires to a VSE timer module and on to a pair of relays. Finally, the wires hit the security system's main control module.

"One relay moves the spoiler up, and the other handles the 'down' action," Goren says, "The timer module cuts power to the motor after about 30 seconds-about the time it takes for the spoiler to move all the way up or down." The timer keeps the motor from burning out if Patel holds down the remote's spoiler button for too long or if the relays' contacts stick.

The timer and relays joined the balance of the system's components--eight additional relays, eight fuses, the Communicator, the pager module, the 8080's module, and two VSE AWACS window-control modules--in a concealed and carpeted enclosure in the Carrera's front trunk. The AWACS modules incorporate timers, which shut the power-window motors off after the windows are completely opened or closed, and current sensors, which shut the motors off if someone's hand or some other extremity gets caught in a closing window. (Ooof!)

The trunk enclosure is made of 3/4-inch press board, measures 6 x 24 x 18 inches, and fits in the spare-tire compartment without crowding out the spare. Goren notes that the enclosure helps to display the system at sound-offs and makes it easy to repair or replace any or all of the components. The enclosure actually has three horizontal panels: The topmost panel hides the components, which are mounted underneath on a second panel; the bottom panel covers the spare. The cover can be lifted to view the components, while the mounting board can be removed if servicing necessitates it.

Even getting at the spare isn't a problem, since the entire box can be lifted out without disconnecting the system. Two lengthy wiring harnesses, each using 12-gauge wire (thicker than the 18-gauge wire Goren usually uses for security installs), make this possible. "Normally, the main control unit and the other components go under the dash or somewhere inside the passenger compartment," he explains. "We decided to go 12 gauge because these wires run pretty long, and the longer you run wires, the more resistance you create."

Attention to detail also led the installers to rewire the factory fuseblock. One of the reasons was to confuse someone who tried to use the 8080's console-mounted keypad to disarm the system; this precaution was taken in case a thief happened to find the keypad's code. Now, you have to turn the car's key to the ACCESSORY position before the keypad can be used.

All of these custom touches turned the install into a two-month project, but this didn't bother Patel, who was pretty realistic about the job. After all, quality systems usually cost big bucks and take some time to install. That's the name of the game.