RJ DeVera Does Up An Is-F... Yeah Boyeeeee!Over the last half-decade RJ De Vera has nearly become a household name, synonymous with tuning Japanese cars. For those of you that just fell off the turnip truck yesterday, he has had a hand in more car builds than you can shake a stick at. Most famously he was involved in the production of everyone's favorite import culture film, The Fast and the Furious. Whether or not you deny having seen the movies like Charles does, you have most likely seen something RJ helped build whether or not you realized it.
When Lexus announced a proposal to give out the all-new IS-F to elite tuners, RJ and Andy, his business partner, at MotorworldHype sent in their submission. Needless to say Lexus accepted their concept and gave them a car... three weeks after everyone else that was approved. What was the reason for the wait? Well the boys at MotorworldHype would only accept a white IS-F and nothing else. Since they were fresh out, Lexus had to come up on one just for the project. We're glad they held out, as the pearl white is the nicest color in our opinion.
The idea behind the build was to improve on what Lexus had built, without compromising what the car stands for- Luxury. Essentially they wanted to improve performance and handling characteristics as well as aesthetics without sacrificing ride quality and other comforts of a daily driven luxury car. With inspiration coming from special edition vehicles like the Mercedes CLK63 black series, they set forth to create a performance package that would be easy to replicate. For the majority of the modifications RJ and Andy decided to go with off-the-shelf pieces, such as the Volk wheels, Gallery Fresh engine dress-up parts and the Brembo GT brake kit.
The rest of the modifications are all prototypes. Gearheinz collaborated with Gallery Fresh to create a stunning gold intake box. The stock seats were reupholstered in blue alcantara to prevent the driver or passengers from sliding around during hard cornering. This way the occupants can enjoy a more-snug ride without the hassle of bucket seats and harnesses. Last but certainly not least, Ventross fabricated a plethora of dry carbon pieces using this car as their test vehicle. With subtle modifications in all the right places I'd say MotorworldHype certainly reached the goal they were trying to meet and made good on their promise to Lexus.
Fast Facts
2009 Lexus IS-F
Owner Lexus Corporate Us
Hometown Torrance, CA
Daily Grind Manufacturing Awesome Luxury Cars
Under The Hood DOHC 2UR-GSE 5.0L Naturally-aspirated V8; Gallery gold intake chamber, gold engine dress up kit; Borla high performance exhuast
Drivetrain OEM IS-F drivetrain brains OEM IS-F ECU
Stiff Stuff Tein coilover system
Rollers 19X8.5 +37 (front) 19X9.5 +35 (rear) matte black Volk TE37 wheels; 235/35/19 (front) 265/30/19 (rear) Michelin Pilot Sport 2 tires
Stoppers Brembo GT big brake kit (six piston front calipers w/380mm floating rotors), stainless lines, custom IS-F ultrasonic blue mica paint
Outside Ventross dry carbon front lip, dry carbon rear diffuser cap, dry carbon boot-lid aero trunk; gloss black emblems; matte black upper and lower grill; gloss black roof and window sills; matte black exhaust tips
Inside OEM seats reupholstered with blue alcantara
Ice OEM IS-F head unit w/navigation
Props Everyone at Lexus especially Justin, Cheryl, and Craig, The MotorworldHype.Com Squad, The Ventross/Vorsteiner Crew, The Street Concepts Build Team, Everyone at Volk Racing, Rays Engineering, and Mackin USA, The boys at Tein USA, The iD Agency Creatives, Everyone at Brembo NA and RaceTech, The team at Recaro, The players at Gallery, Georgheinz at Gearheinz Automotive, Everyone at Michelin, The boys at Fix Auto, The whole team at Borla and Ernie from NOS Energy Drinks'
www brembo.com; galleryfresh.com; motorworldhype.com; tein.com; ventross.com; rayswheels.co.jp (Volk)