FASTR - Getting to know Aaron Kaufman

we can we can we can we can be here for years give me give you something give you a sec give give you some kind of got some kind of condensed version so Aaron Kaufman were currently in Grand Prairie Texas which is directly between Fort Worth and Dallas and so so this is our home this is uh this is the first commercial building remember bought so this is a bit of big move for me it's been really difficult and we're almost done with the new shop and a lot of new things are happening here in 2020 and it's been a long road to get here not a not one that I would have thought I never would have expected to be sitting here talking with you all doing this and about to embark on the next journey that we're about to embark on but when I was growing up we were always very hands-on family it's like whenever someone family needed roof we'd put a roof on wherever would need to add a room onto a house we'd do that whenever the car needed a new engine we'd do it the driveway and it's like be honest most of my childhood I don't remember us like having like a proper garage and so we've always been very hands-on and so I felt like there was nothing that anyone could do that I couldn't do it was just gaining the experience and so I was always attracted to cars we didn't my dad built hot rods and drag cars like before I came along and they're obviously responsibilities and life caught up and so when I was growing up we didn't have dirt bikes or mini bikes we didn't have we didn't have hot rods or race cars it was just something I gravitated towards and then my dad always had photos and stories and stuff but we didn't have him around and as I was nearing the end of my high school education but my dad had bought me a little pickup truck for when I was 16 and I wanted something else and and I'd bought this Jeep and I had lifted it and and it had a driveline vibration and so I ordered a vibration repair like a real low transfer case relocation kit what shows up open the box and it's like two pieces of one by two rectangle tubing with three holes drilled in them and so from that point on and just lowered the transfer case and so I decided that if I needed anything to modify my cars I would attempt to make it if I didn't make it of course they would still sell one to me as it turns out I was reasonably adapted and making things and I mean I started chasing the like how do you make things and why and what tools do you use and where the processes are and I started becoming fascinating with the like the art of building and got into like we're started in mini trucks it's because being punk kids we'd have a lot of money so we're shaving handles and and tail lights and cutting off frames and back half and and start learning about suspension and suspension theory and why things work a lot of air ride and then you started developing learning how use the mill in the lathe and welding processes and then at some point I was a I was doing air ride at a shop just we're just pickup trucks and cars laying him on the ground air ride wheels and stereos and stuff and one day I had to say that this would be my craft not my job and there was a distinct difference than the guys in the shop there were guys that showed up to get a paycheck and go home and and this was a jog wasn't their craft and so for me where it really meant was every day I wanted to understand more about my craft I wanted to be better at the end of every day than I was when I started at the better at the end of every week at the end of every month and so that every time I left the shop I was better at my job than I was when I showed up and so that kind of mentality really caused me to seek out other people's point of views and different reasons for doing things different different styles inside the trade and and to the point now it's like I'm down to build absolutely anything at least once right and so so many passions from race cars in the dirt on pavement to you know things that are exceptionally fast that the things that just just ooze style and it's just across the board from mini trucks to race cars to hot rods and so that's you know it's been it's been over 20 years of chasing of chasing this specifically and I've had while I've had a couple other jobs I've pretty much only worked in the custom car world almost exclusively as an adult I've worked in the custom car world and so it's and it's I've met some of the greatest people and I wouldn't I wouldn't trade any of my experiences I've just been pursuing this which ultimately led me to meet Richard Rawlings and then he asked me to come work at his shop which we did for years and and we had we'd had a few guys working for us and the times it would just be Richard myself and I would build about maybe two or three cars for a customer a year we'd flip a lot of cars buy people's half-finished projects sold a lot of t-shirts had a lot of good time drink a lot of beer and really got introduced into some of this like Gumball Rally and bull run rally and Richard was really attracted to that upper-echelon lifestyle gaudy gold on everything $4,000 loafers and stuff anything was I got to come along for the ride you met some really interesting people and some weird connections but we had it we had a darn good time we got a lot of stories but Richard you know wanted more and he wanted to be famous and wanted to you know wanted to be in a position similar to Jesse James right I mean quite literally it is what it is and he asked me about it and I said well it that sounds wonderful how much does it pay and so and so I came along I started building I could tell there was more opportunity working with Richard than it was working for myself even though I got a shop of my own which was called Fort Worth Rod and Custom I got into a point where it was paying for itself but I wasn't exactly putting money in my pocket you know I can you see there were more opportunities with Richard and sure enough there were and I got to work on cars and be immersed in a side of the industry that I otherwise I don't think ever would have I really began with Richard my experience in early Ford stuff obviously really heavy and Model A's and so I couldn't begin to I couldn't begin to calculate how many Model A's I put together a worked on which I really do a door and then obviously into more expensive early Fords and into the hot rodding into things so that was that really kind of started the shift and then also experiencing new people's being around more higher-end cars and so it my appetite started growing front from there obviously we found a way to TV which is a bit of a difference to worry how that happened and then so I worked with Richard on the the fasten allowed show for discovery for somewhere around like five years I did a hundred episodes over there built 81 ground-up cars for every one of those cars we put two or three back on the road so in five years I did a little more than build cars it was exclusively what it was I mean sleeping from I mean four to six hours a night what sounds crazy but like years on end of that stuff and it was it was really stressful but the neat thing and the one thing I wouldn't trade for anything is is that we would build these cars and unbelievable time frames and they really are maybe not what you see on TV true but we would build these cars in weeks and it was absolutely mind-bending in the appetite that I had grown was for what else can we do in this timeframe how much more car and then once I kind of found the end of it that all that how much car we could build the story of doing it and working in that environment really caught up with me but the thing that I enjoyed so much was there wasn't a fan or but we had to finish a car had to be functional had to do its job on this date or very close to it and so we had the same problems that everyone else has in every other shop in America around the world every other guy in their garage every problem they've had we had to accept I couldn't wait to figure it out we had to figure it out tonight have a solution on the floor tomorrow morning and so it caused us to be really resourceful and really expand our fingers into the industry and find people who could answer these things can get us parts quickly and understand the situations that we were in and so I gained what I like to think of as half a lifetime worth of experience in a matter of five years and and that's something that I don't there's nowhere in the world you can go buy that experience to build that many cars that fast with no you have to have solutions right now and the neat thing was the real benefit for me is it didn't come out of my pocket it was a unique situation where between Richard and television we really got to fund a lot of cool stuff and for the most part I had free reign I really got what do you want to do and that was something I think a lot of people don't necessarily get to experience they have a customer that wants something and they're always having to work inside it's someone else's parameters and I really got some some loose freedom there and I really enjoyed that but you know we're trending back towards the real world these days and I have found myself since 14 2014 just overwhelmingly attracted to race cars and so I'd always wanted to be around it but I really just didn't think it was a possibility and so I had an opportunity came up for me to buy my Falcon opportunity came up for me to build the Falcon on the show opportunity came up we put some things together where I could go race it and then so it wasn't just the realization of a dream but it was really just the stoking of a fire and then every second I've spent a race car since then has only made the fire hotter every I mean it's like every night when you're up against you know the clock and you have to be there on the grid have a car in a trailer drive across country it's like it's always stressful and cus it that I love it you know and it's and that's one of the things so here are quite a couple things we're truck guys through and through nothing will ever change that works truck guys second thing is we're hot-rodder over hot rodders we and we believe motor oil right but the the third thing is as it turns out here Arclight we really are Ford guys we build just about anything but we are Ford guys and so we really decided to kind of specialize in one area but because of our our vast tastes it's hard for us to develop quickly and obviously this last year we've dealt with buying a building and moving but we kind of exist in the f-100 the Ford space for pickup trucks we built anything we love them big wheels on the ground big power and and so that's kind of who we are but we've really discovered that our heart isn't is really so much in racing we love the intrinsic drama the natural drama the the camaraderie the Brotherhood we love what we all risk when we get in the car we love what we all sacrifice to work on race cars to be on teams to make it happen it's just for those few just those those seconds or minutes of glory you know and it it fades so quick but the memories are so sweet and so every time you get out of the car it's everything just to get back to that spot again just for the opportunity to do something better than you thought you could do to do something better than everyone else just if not for a few minutes or a few hours just to be as good as you can be or the attempt to be that's something we don't find in the other parts of the automotive world to really put all the pressure on our building on our skills on our preparedness on our team it's like just for a few hours or a few minutes we get to see how close to perfect we can get and so that's that's an interesting chase and it's a lifelong chase and it is not cheap and there's a lot of things sacrificed for it but that's one of the things that we were really blessed to be able to experience here so who are we were hot rodders we build hot rods we develop parts for the f100 space and then we chase a life in racing and when we're not building race cars or maintains we're working on hot rods and that's who we are and you know oftentimes though the road gets tough and you think about other potential ways to get through life and make money and ultimately we've discovered one thing we don't want to be anywhere else and so this is we just decided we'll figure out how to make this work and so that's what you see is a work in progress here we're always trying to be better builders better drivers understand our craft better and build ever ever more powerful hot rods you know they're not race cars but we build powerful hot rods and we love pushing the edge for racecars it for 2020 aside from just continuing our growth in the f100 and the hotrod space really our main focus is we've developed we've had a friendship with Dean Kearney and this is an Irishman who's won the championship in Ireland I guess you could say is the best a drifter and Ireland all around great car controlled wonderful racecar driver and we've we've been friends with him and we would like we're developing a partnership so in 2020 we are stepping up into pro racing and we will be making the run through 2020 and hopefully beyond word will use the existing car at a Deans team now and for this year Rudel develop our team the ALR Arclight racing team around that and Dean and I both have a strong will to race anything with tires or we almost don't even care how many it's got and so everything from dirt to pavement you know sometimes it's spend a little time in the air so this is new for us to exist for a full season put forth a real effort in pro level racing on top of that we've decided to double down and pick up on another car as an arrive and drive for another driver obviously our focus at ALR is to support Dean in the effort in FD which is Formula Drift USA and we have eight rounds we'll be prepping and maintaining a car that Dean has has developed and then hopefully through 2020 we'll be collaborating and building a brand new pro one car for Dean in the 2021 season and growing our efforts they're bringing on as many of our partners as we can and just seeing what damage we can get done in pro level racing I've been picking at races for a couple years here and there in different places but this will be the first time that that our Clyde or ALR has put forth an entire seasons effort this year is really a crazy year and it's and it's unique because also it's like in our camp it's like working with Dean it's like Dean has so much interest in racing things and and I've developed such a relationship with life motorsports out of Salt Lake in Utah and the Sierra car program which allowed me to race American rallycross last year which is the first time anyone's got behind me and allowed me to race as much of a series as my schedule would allow and it was it really has been an amazing relationship with Cole with his guys with life and with a Sierra car program so last year I got drive Pikes Peak again Sierra alpha which is a turbo version of this open-wheel car which is high boost of power 350 horse weighs a thousand pounds and is much faster than the Falcon and so it was is really it was it has been incredible for have someone else put me in a car that I could start pushing my boundaries because I you know it's so much money to build a car to move up to each of the next levels and so to be able to have someone have that much faith in me to put me in a car that's very expensive and go out and ask me to you know to see what I can get done and like work my threshold up has been has been really been a pleasure and a blessing and so I'll be back again this year in Sierra in the new 2020 car which is a bit of a departure from the last car which I thought was good the new car is is honestly an animal and so will will be back up there with the little cars and see what we can get done and I'm terribly excited last year I was so floored to be so close to what I thought my ideal time on the mountain was in fact I was I was inside of what I thought if I run this fast I won't ask for anything more I'll be happy as it turns out we all lie to ourselves and that ended up being a big lie because once I in the in the Sierra car once I realized like I was inside that time that I told myself I'd be happy with I was not happy like I needed to go faster still you know and so it made me the you know being the right situation in the right car I believe that things that previously I didn't think I was capable of we're now within striking distance and so that's it's been it's been a wild ride and Pikes Peak has given me access to a family not just on the mountain but through other racing and just personalities across the country that lifelong friends some of the greatest people I've ever met I met through racing and most of I met through Pikes Peak and so it's it's I think ironic a little bit that the very first serious big race I ever did and they held my hand so much to get through it and get to it and make it happen has really been the Gateway to almost everything else since then the truth of the matter is is I need to run Baja 1000 in a trophy truck that's that's that's that's really really simple it's like there are fast pavement cars out there and you know I don't have the the backing and I don't have the experience I don't know that you'll ever see me at Lamar I don't know that you know that all necessary I that I'll be at Daytona I don't know that you know these things will happen but one day I will I will spend 27 30 hours just pounding my mind out in a big nasty 6,000 pound 900 horsepower truck through Mexico I've had the pleasure of being of running in some 6100 trucks but one day it's like I love racing in the dirt I absolutely do I love being in the desert I love the challenges it faces and it's like if there was one you have to accomplish this or it was it was a life undone is a I need some time in a big powerful race car in the desert we're working to get there we'll get there one day but aside from that it's it's build hot rods build race cars just to get to the next race car adventure around the globe I'd love to do Peking to Paris it's like I really one day I really want to run the car and I think that that is I think that's within our grasp I think that we could it just we got to find the right partners in the right time in the right year but it's like ultimately I know myself and and some of my racing cohorts would love to be on the team and raced a car which I think we can do and so our effort is to just to keep pushing up what our capabilities are and get closer to the top they spend as much time racing on different parts of the planet experience different people different cultures and do it all through the scope of motorsport Cowabunga dudes yeah

Channel: FastR

Views: 483,504

Keywords: motosport, racing, cars, time, attack, timeattack, powerboat, powerboat racing, time attack, fastr, befastr, hoonigan, car throttle, epic, motivation, motivational videos, cryptocurrency, formula 1, gt3, gt2, rs, porsche, bentley, bmw, m3, drifting, 2jz, supra, jap cars, japanese, mazda, rx7, motorsport

Id: kWRGt-uKc7g

Length: 17min 22sec (1042 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 13 2020