ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS

A CHINWAG WITH LEGENDARY METAL MAN JOE GAUCI OF PROFAB MOTORSPORT FABRICATIONS

FROM the street, Joe Gauci’s Profab Motorsport Fabrications is a fairly modest-looking operation. You’d certainly never pick that it’s where a good number of Australia’s swiftest street, strip and radial weapons were born. Nestled in suburban Wollongong, the business operates from a (very large and very impressive) backyard shed, and is built on Joe’s stellar reputation as a race fabrication guru.

Joe’s own Mustang is quickly emerging as a force to be reckoned with on the radial scene, having already run into the threes very early on in its development. And somewhat fittingly, his son and right-hand man, Jonathon, has just bought back Joe’s legendary Pro Street Cortina and is intent on revamping it as a Barra-powered street-and-strip warrior.

How did you get your start in the industry?

I started my apprenticeship as a fitter and machinist when I was 16 at the steelworks at BHP. They had an awesome training facility, and we got thorough training in every aspect of fitting and machining. I love fabrication and I always had a passion for cars. I started tinkering myself and reading books and modifying cars. That started off as me doing my own thing, and then mates started to modify cars and would ask me to work on their projects, and over the years it got out of control; it became too much. That’s when I started Profab, in 2001. Basically we do anything to do with cars: fabricating diffs, doing brake conversions, wheel tubs, engine fitment, turbo manifolds and plumbing and rollcages, right through to building an Outlaw car or a Pro Mod.

Tell us about your legendary Cortina.

The Cortina started off as a 13-second car with a crossflow 250 turbo, and I just wanted to always improve every time we went back to the track. We were always finding ways to go quicker. We spent a lot of time trying to make more and more horsepower, but eventually we realised that we needed to improve the car, and that’s where Profab started. Eventually we were running in Modified Street, and as a 200ci six it went a best of 8.58@162mph. I had dramas keeping crankshafts in it, so we decided enough was enough. At that time we’d just linked up with Frank at Dandy Engines, so we decided to go with a twin-turbo V8 and ended up building a 370ci small-block. The first time we raced it was at Calder, and Steve Petty was out. The Modified Street record was around a 7.8 or 7.9 at the time, and we’d been running 330ft and half-track passes; Petty said it’d go 7.40s if we ran it out the back door. That was four or five tenths quicker than the record at the time! Sure enough, it went 7.45@192mph, which was unbelievable. With the six-cylinder it went 162mph, and it was a pretty hairy ride because Calder isn’t the smoothest of tracks – and I thought that was pretty quick! With the V8 it went 162 to half-track! After that pass, I got out of the car at the end of the track and got down on my hands and knees and thanked God that I got through it in one piece!