September 18, 2013

New Aero From Joefis Racing

Ever heard of Joefis Racing? I hadn't until about a year ago when I saw his fabrication work on a few Street Prepared cars at the Ayer National Tour, and even more of his work this year at the New Jersey ProSolo. I'll tell ya, pictures on the internet do NOT give justice to his amazing work I've seen in person.
Front Splitter Mockup
Joefis Racing is a company out of Pennsylvania that focuses on fabricating parts for race cars. Most of his work that gets heavily noticed is his amazing Street Prepared front and rear aero pieces. These pieces are 100% by the book, and totally class legal, as he measures everything very closely to ensure that there is no way it goes against the rules. Heck, when he saw my polyurethane front spoiler I had on the car, he threw the book at me to remind me how it cannot stick out farther than that actual bumper!
Rear Spoiler Mockup
Since front and rear aero are the last large items on my list for my build, I decided to reach out to Joe over at Joefis Racing to see if we could collaborate on something. We decided that on the way home from Nationals, I would drop off my car for two weeks so it could get these pieces designed and created for it. A two week turnaround time to fabricate from scratch a full aero kit is pretty impressive, wouldn't you say? That, matched with great customer service (he's a really nice guy and willing to work with you on anything), and a killer price, I can't see any other reason why NOT to give Joe a try!

I haven't picked up the car just yet, so I can't wait to see how everything will look on the car and painted! The pictures above are pictures taking during the mockup phase, while the pictures below are what the final product is going to look like made in aluminum, unpainted.
Front Splitter Final Piece
Rear Spoiler Final Piece
From what I can tell, it looks like everything went smoothly and came out excellent. What's even cooler about these pieces is that they're removable, allowing you to still be able to street drive your car, or at least get it up driveways and ramps easier! I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the body holes in the front just yet, as those are there from the previous spoiler, but Joe assured me he came up with something to make it look clean. Either way, it's been a pleasure collaborating with Joe on this project and maybe I'll work on something with him in the future again. It will be interesting to see if any other upcoming DSP RX-8's will run this aero setup, or come up with something on their own to rival this.

Big thanks to Joe for the time, patience, and effort into these pieces, as I really appreciate it and can't wait to test them out. For now, be sure to check out his Facebook page to see what he's been up to lately and some of his other great work! During the next race I'll be focusing on just how much the aero has changed the car's characteristics and what I'll have to do to tune the car's setup for the aero. Until then, stay tuned.

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