I guess that's the first head unit with an integrated tube amp, but it's certainly not a great place to put an amp of any sort really. And that's certainly not the first use of tube amps in cars. I'm not sure if Milbert is first or not, but it predates this by more than a decade.
I heard Earl Zausmer's BMW (
http://milbert.com/earl/) when we were both competing in June or July '96 and it was easily the best sounding car audio system I'd ever heard. But then, I'm a big B&W speaker fan, and like tube amps, so I could be a bit biased.
I'm told the update with Nautilus 801s was a significant upgrade, but much prefer the stealthy setup of the older setup - dash speakers on miniature elevators that hide in the dash, 13" front-mounted subwoofers with zero footwell intrusion, etc, etc. What a cool car and a nice guy.
- Jason