One thing to think of is guys have been setting up cars for years before this fance delay/time correction came around. IMO time correction is only good for two things. 1) Someone who hasn't a clue on how to set up a car properly or 2) a final "tweek" once the car is set up.

Don't get me wrong, time correction is a great feature, but I think too many people are relying on it to achieve great results and putting less time into the actuall install. My advice is to learn what it takes to get a car sounding great first, then worry about time correction for fine tuning.

Being its your first year and your only being judged from one seat, it should be quite easy to achieve your image and stage.

 

IMO yes it is that easy. Your talking one seat. If you know how to make a decent pair of kicks, one seat should be a snap.

 

kick panels dont make image and stage a snap, there is narrow stage issues with most kick panel installs, rainbow if you will, getting center image might be easier with kich panel mounted speakers, but getting a wide stage is a totally different story with kick panel mounted midrange/bass and tweeters, i have heard very few vehicles with what i would consider a wide stage, and truth be told even with kick mounted speakers there is still time alignment issues. it is widely accepted that humans can hear time variances as little as 1.5 ms which is about 5-6 cm, and most vehicle even with k/p mounted speakers have variances in excess of that. there are many people myself included that spent many many hours on our installs, and design, and in the end t/a was critical for stage width and especially depth, i agree it makes for a one seat sq install but i guess i disagree with your generalization that most people use as a bandaid for poor preparation and not as an installation aid that in most cases can yeild huge benefits in a single seat sq vehicle