It’s amazing what a huge impact the most minor of modifications can make to the look of a car.
After finishing all of the major aesthetic mods to the Z3 (the wheels, exhaust, ride height and sun strip), I knew that it still needed something to really make it stand out from the crowd. After browsing around on Instagram I came across a start up company in Bakersfield, California that were making custom aero kits for street and race cars. I DM’d FS Performance Engineering on Instagram and arranged to take the Z3 over to be measured up for a new front splitter and side skirts. Fast forward a few weeks and the car was on their lift and Costas (the owner) and I were designing a subtle yet sporty aero package that would give the Z3 a more aggressive look without sacrificing driveablity.
After mocking up the shape from cardboard and figuring out the mounting points, Costas converted the prototype in to a CAD file and sent it off to be laser cut. A week later I got a call to say it was go time but unfortunately because of my schedule it wasn’t until last week (over 3 months after it was ready!) that I managed to get back to Bakersfield and have it fitted.
But boy was it worth the wait! I’m amazed how precisely the front lip and skirts fit using existing mounting points on the car. There were only 3 small holes drilled in the under side of the front bumper to provide additional support, everything else used existing bolts under the car…amazing!
Needless to say I’m stoked on how it turned out, the lip and skirts are subtle, but they really tie in all of the black accents now and coupled with my new cheap eBay headlights, the car looks 10 years newer. The car looks so good in fact, that I asked Costas to design me a small ducktail spoiler to finish off the back of the car, so stay tuned to see how that works out in the very near future.
If you’re looking for some custom aero for your car, whether it be a functional flat floor and huge diffuser or just something purely for aesthetics like mine, be sure to give FS Performance Engineering a call and check their website for a pretty extensive list of products they already produce. I’ll be taking the Mercedes to them as soon as I can to have them work their magic and create something epic for the race car!