rear CF bumper beam by AxisPower Racing

John from axispowerracing.com(314-324-3530) made a dry carbon/foam filled bumper beam for me and its wt. 3lbs vs. 24 oem. This bumper cost me $800 and took John 3wks from mould to finish.

John's background is in Indy cars so he is not into bling. He has a busy shop making dry carbon race parts for various people/teams. I have bought cf seats, hard top, doors from him and they are all very light/strong/functional/fits/seals/comfortable.

I bought a frt alum bumper beam from ProCars and it wt. 3.8lbs vs. 25lbs oem. Its a very nice part but It sure cost a lot of $$$$$ being Euro.
Total lost close to 45lbs plus lower PMI as well:wink:

PS - thx for any safety concerns, plz keep it to yourself.:smile:

1. I don't see any pics.
2. Not trying to be a smarta$$ but what is the reason behind your post? are you bragging about something that got made just for you? Are you suggesting that this person can/will make other CF parts for members of Prime?

Do you have any pic's or details (like thickness)? Is it longer than the shortened Procar alum? Na1 or Na2? Thanks, I just did Procar's rear beam and am now looking at the front.

92NSX said:

1. I don't see any pics.
2. Not trying to be a smarta$$ but what is the reason behind your post? are you bragging about something that got made just for you? Are you suggesting that this person can/will make other CF parts for members of Prime?

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+1.

No. I am not trying to be a smart $ss or bragging. What point would that be?
Its lower wt. and lower PMI I am after not how much I am able to paid for bling. If you want to say $800 bucks for saving 20lb+ is too much, well, so be it.

I am letting Prime know there is another source to buy dry carbon parts and this one I believe will fit NA1 but I think/guess it will fit all years since they are of the same design. I searched for an Alum OEM with no luck. JDM stuff is too $$$$ and too difficult to get. John will make parts for you and give you references to put you at ease.

ProCar Special stuff is very nice and very expensive as you know. John's stuff is more functional and more affordable.

I do not know the thinkness of this part or the detail of what goes into it. He uses aerospace hardware/nutplate a lot....you can call John and ask. He has made enough parts for me in the past and now I don;t question as much. Its probably just as strong as the ProCar bumper but not as pretty. John could have made a box/square design like the ProCar but I didn't give him enough time nor does he has the car at his shop to look at. So he just made it as close to the oem bumper as he can and a bit shorter.

I uploaded 5 thumbnails but its not showing up....it won;t allow me to reload again. I can pm you the pix and see if you can post them for all to see.
Ooops....it showed up..my bad.

Tanto2 said:

Do you have any pic's or details (like thickness)? Is it longer than the shortened Procar alum? Na1 or Na2? Thanks, I just did Procar's rear beam and am now looking at the front.

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Its a bit shorter them oem about 5-6 inches or so. John uses nutplates which are a lot tighter than the regular hardware. I use 1/4" drive carefully.

I could only afford ProCar frt alum beam(it fits and looks very nice) so I turned to John for the rear beam.

92NSX said:

1. I don't see any pics.
2. Not trying to be a smarta$$ but what is the reason behind your post? are you bragging about something that got made just for you? Are you suggesting that this person can/will make other CF parts for members of Prime?

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2. Just in case someone wants to know the cost of this beam. John can/will make dry carbon parts for Prime. I am just a happy customer and glad that I found him. John is not a kid making backyard stuff but a straight forward/racer type and no BS kinda of guy. He is a one-man shop and the website is a bit outdated. I drove 12hr to his shop just to ck him out after he sent me many pix and references of my miata parts to make sure he is for real not blowing smoke.

liftnot said:

I bought a frt alum bumper beam from ProCars and it wt. 3.8lbs vs. 25lbs oem. Its a very nice part but It sure cost a lot of $$$$$ being Euro.:

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Since the ProCar front beam is basically a square or rectangular aluminum channel, doesn't it eliminate the ability to mount the windshield washer bottle? The OEM steel beam is curved so it fits around the washer bottle. I was going to fabricate a similar straight aluminum beam for mine when I had the front bumper off for painting, but I'm not willing to omit the washer bottle. Without fabricating a curved beam, you would need to use 2-3 inch "standoffs" from the frame rail brackets to allow the straight beam to clear the front of the washer bottle. This arrangement might lead to more front chassis flex than the heavy OEM beam.

Here's a question: Has anyone removed the front bumper beam altogether for weight savings and not replaced it with anything? If so is the chassis flex noticeable?

David

Thank's, and will he be updating his website?

I thought i would chime in on Tims rear bumper beam I made for him. Total thickness is about 1/8th inch or 6 layers 6k 5hs. I dont use a dry carbon rather a prepreg fabric with the resin system already in place, then it gets vacuum bagged and heat cured. As Tim stated earlier I only use aerospace fastners. I source the absolute strongest nuts, bolts rivets, nut plates etc. I have never had a part come off any race car or street car!!!! Plus I use alot of nomex and aluminum honeycomb on exterior panels which blows the strength off the planet!! All of the panels you see in the pages you think is carbon is realy just chopper gun glassfibre which is heavy and will warp. My exterior panels usually weight in at just below half of alu.

Most of the parts I make are for pure racing so there is never any exterior clear gel coats used which just adds alot of extra weight and will turn funny colours. So you would get them with a pure carbon finish. If you would want it clear coated then you would need to take it to your local body shop for urethane clear coating which is going to be much better than any poly gel coat since it will never crack or discolour. I do this for interior/exterior trim pieces only since I can get it done pretty quickly.

hope this helps answer some questions.

thanks

john

Maybe this is a smart ass question: who cares? Anyway, if the aftermarket piece does not provide much safety, just remove the oem, and save the weight and the 800.00?

Thats why when I made the bumper beam for chens car I made it extra thick, foam filled it and boxed the ends closed.

Its building safe parts first because if my parts kill off my customers then I wont have any customers to sell parts too!

RIGHT?

liftnot- Sorry, your original post didn't say the rear beam, I though you were just mentioning the alum beam, I mistakently thought you were talking the front. For those that want OEM safety, your dealer should be able to get the alum beam for about 650, I bought one that way a few years back. FYI the Procar beam is 5/16 thick or 2 1/2 time thicker. There are several folks out there not running any beams. I'm now in the market for a CF front beam. Anyone know how thick the Procars alum front beam is? TIA

NSX-Files said:

Since the ProCar front beam is basically a square or rectangular aluminum channel, doesn't it eliminate the ability to mount the windshield washer bottle? The OEM steel beam is curved so it fits around the washer bottle. I was going to fabricate a similar straight aluminum beam for mine when I had the front bumper off for painting, but I'm not willing to omit the washer bottle. Without fabricating a curved beam, you would need to use 2-3 inch "standoffs" from the frame rail brackets to allow the straight beam to clear the front of the washer bottle. This arrangement might lead to more front chassis flex than the heavy OEM beam.

Here's a question: Has anyone removed the front bumper beam altogether for weight savings and not replaced it with anything? If so is the chassis flex noticeable?

David

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since i have the ProCar frt bumper, I no longer able to mount the washer bottle. I'll use RainX more oftern I guess. Seems to me, everytime you modify something on the car, there is always a give and take and you gain some and lose some.

the frt bumper beam mounts at the end of the beefy frame which is already "boxed in" so I doubt eliminating the bumper beam will make the chassis flex but you do it at your own discretion. I think(IMO) the two SOS NSX-R chassis brace may stiffen the frt end more effectively.

Tanto2 said:

liftnot- Sorry, your original post didn't say the rear beam, I though you were just mentioning the alum beam, I mistakently thought you were talking the front. For those that want OEM safety, your dealer should be able to get the alum beam for about 650, I bought one that way a few years back. FYI the Procar beam is 5/16 thick or 2 1/2 time thicker. There are several folks out there not running any beams. I'm now in the market for a CF front beam. Anyone know how thick the Procars alum front beam is? TIA

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oh well... the title saz rear cf bumper beam. I did not have any luck locating an oem alum beam.
You should ask ProCar for the alum frt beam dimension. I did not measure mine but it "looks like" roughly 2x3 extruded box frame w/ foam and about 1/8" wall but don;t quote me on this.

Texas91Brent said:

Maybe this is a smart ass question: who cares? Anyway, if the aftermarket piece does not provide much safety, just remove the oem, and save the weight and the 800.00?

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You are right! that works well for drag racing. $800 buys a lot of gas & parts.

This is a great idea if it's functional. Is it? I don't know how CF responds in an accident. I have heard though that they are only
5 MPH bumper beams" and if you get in an accident at any reasonable speed, it's not going to matter.

What I am concerned about if you don't have a bumper beam is a 5 MPh carsh that will cause frame damage on your car.. this is what I'm not sure on.

Thats why Carbon/kevla should be used to strengh up the beam... carbon is good for strengh...kevlar is good for impact, so...mix the 2 :wink:

Again thats why I foam filled the beam for chen. Actually kevlar looses its ballistic strength when epoxy resin is applied. Once cured kevlar just rips easily. So I only use carbon. And for speed crash rating whos going to be the first to test it out??? One thing to try to remember is you want the bumper beam to be just strong enough to absorb the energy and keep it from going into the frame of the vehicle where more damage can happen but not overly strong where it doesnt break and hidden damage can happen in the frame. Kind of a double edge sword.

Let me chime in on this rear bumper beam matter.

The OEM steel bumper beam is extremely strong. I crashed my car once going backwards (after a spin). Had to replace my complete trunk bottom and rear wall, but the bumper beam was only slightly bent and could be used again (it is still on the car). So, from my experience, the beam will just fold up the rear of your car in one piece but otherwise stay pretty much intact.
I guess that's how Honda designed it to be.
By not buckling under stress, the force of any rear impact is spread out over the whole width of the car, thereby minimizing the risk for the occupants.

Some questions for the maker of this beam:

1. Why did you make the beam shorter than the OEM beam? Maintaining the original length would probably not have mattered much in terms of weight.
2. When installing this beam, do you just use all the original OEM parts to mount the whole bumper.

The idea of loosing weight in such a critical place is tempting, depending on the price of course.

I made it shorter because the ends of the oem version were pretty far away from the fastning points. Had there been extra fastning points further out the beam I surely would have made it full length.

Right all oem bolt locations are used. All hardware is as same as used on aircraft. Nut plates, rivets, and bolts. All very strong!

98REYNARD said:

I made it shorter because the ends of the oem version were pretty far away from the fastning points. Had there been extra fastning points further out the beam I surely would have made it full length.

Right all oem bolt locations are used. All hardware is as same as used on aircraft. Nut plates, rivets, and bolts. All very strong!

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Thanks for the information

Does anyone know how much the ProCar version costs?

As I just installed the rear procar, my personal take is it is/was a mistake to make the rear beam shorter. If I now take a small hit from the rear in the corner where the beam is not, it will crush the quarter and inner quarter like tissue paper. Looks like penny wise, pound foolish to me. I of course am still taking that risk. I would not have put in a thinner section beam though. As Mym stated the aluminum rear beam I took off is WAY strong. The front steel beams I would rate at medium strength. I'll bet Proc designed their beam around the R beam which is probably designed to minimum strength. I'd like to have a little stronger front beam of CF. I drilled a few pounds out of my alum beam, thats the way to go IMO unless you are a REAL weight nut and don't mind some risk llike me. I can't believe you can't get an alum beam as they were OEM on late model cars. Are you thinking when a body shop orders the late model alum beam, they send them the steel? Sorry about not reading the header.

MvM said:

Thanks for the information

Does anyone know how much the ProCar version costs?

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it was close to $1200 USD=756 Euro. not 100% sure but close to it.

since i have the ProCar frt bumper, I no longer able to mount the washer bottle.

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I also have installed the Procar front alu beam part.
That beam part is structuraly very hard, it came with white inserts, not sure what material.
Without that, the beam weight is nothing but Marcus recommended to install that support for street use. Really nice part.

My body shop installed the washer bottle too, remember they added a small bracket.
I asked my shop about the general safety issues, funny thing is that they told
me that they can hang on a tank.

I heard that Procar wanna produce a cf beam for front soon?
Have to ask again.

The cf rear beam is also really strong, have seen the damaged NSX-R last year. Rear bumper was damaged, the cf beam still ok.
Reason for me to install it last winter, Im very happy.