hidden aero?

My car is very small, very light and has a very short wheelbase. All of these things add up to a pretty twitchy ride at freeway speeds. I beleive an airdam would help things but........Well that would be unsightly.

So I got to thinking about those odd flaps that hang down under GM products kinda like this

How far forward does something like this need to be mounted? I keep thinking that if I could mount something similar in front of the front leaf spring it might just help.

The "flap" would be located just in front of the the wheels centerline. Is that far enough forward?

I am thinking either cut down a GM bit or just use some old conveyor belting.

Waste of time? or worthwhile experiment?

I say go for it with some conveyer belting... but mount it way up in the front. Always seems to look cool, no idea if it will help anything though! lol

A cheapo chin spoiler can be made from garden edging you can buy at your local Home Depot Racing store.

+1 on garden edging

That bit hanging under GM cars was to force air over the radiator.

That little chin spoiler at least on a third Gen camaro is part of the cooling system. They will overheat at in town traffic speeds without it. I rebuilt my old cars cooling system twice before a parts counter guy asked me if it was still there. 20.00 later no more overheating problems. I ordered a spare the next day. They get taken off easily by parking curbs.

If you want to be super pimp you could find the high pressure zones under the car and then vent them to the always low pressure wheel wells. It might help your brake cooling too.

The GM piece was used to create a low pressure area that would pull air through and away from the radiator.

RexSeven wrote: A cheapo chin spoiler can be made from garden edging you can buy at your local Home Depot Racing store.

what he said.. but i think i got mine at the Menards racing supply store. 20 feet of edging cost me $7 and a small pack of philips head self tapping screws cost $2, with about 1/2 hour of "fabrication" time. what you can't see in this pic is the high performance air scoop i had to also make to put under the radiator to catch some of the air that was still going under the car and jam it thru the radiator..

I found brick edging better for my purposes. Not as tall, but stiff by far and nice tabs for bolting up.

I'd place the piece as forward as is possible honestly. Getting air around your tires would help some also with them being an aerodynamic wall. IMO.

I love my garden edging lip. Probably more aggressive than you'd want though.

That flappie thing was also there to prevent hot air from moving forward and going though the radiator again, when sitting still.

The hood of a New Beetle acts as an air sling if you run the car with the hood open...

By now you may have already learned that hte flap on the GM cars is for cooling.

I think something like this would look good on the car and not be too much. You could make it out of fiberglass.

I had a 240z that was all kinds of twitchy at speed without the chin spoiler. Replaced it, problem solved.

I know that car!!! Sorry for the hijack but I was visiting my brother in Eugene and saw this car (or it's doppleganger) parked outside the adhesive plant where he worked. I had to take a picture, hope you don't mind.

Hows the front suspension/alignment? Worn Tie rods? Can you add caster? Change the toe setting?

Kendall

In reply to Entropyman:

Who is your brother? That is indeed my car and where I work. I was probably just inside that building.

As far as the steering components they are all new. It is set to zero toe right now and I am planning on trying a little toe in this weekend to see if it gets any better.

In would look to some of the abarth cars and see if you can replicate their (more modest) spoilers.

Also, you ever going to replace the front sidemarkers?

In reply to ditchdigger:

David Doctor, I suspected that whoever owned that car would be on this forum.

I have read that if you make an underbody tray to smooth things out (primarily for mpg gains) an added benefit is the reduction in being buffeted around by trucks and what not.

I have been meaning to do this for a while now, but no first hand experience.

I was thinking of using this stuff: http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Colored-Plastic-Rolls,1557.html

I would imagine a small front air dam and an underbody tray would do wonders, but thats all bench racing.

Nice car

I like how the car almost exactly matches the color of the building. That's nice.

In reply to nocones:

Gen 1 Urban Camo.

I don't have anything constructive to add, but sweet baby jesus, that thing is dead sexy.

At 12psi it is a total hoot as well!

Admittedly the boost has had a negative impact on fuel economy. I am down from 57mpg NA to ......gasp... 46mpg around town.

Still $15 dollars of premium gets me over two weeks worth of daily driving.

Can't speak to increased stability (my car's pretty stable as it is), but the Home Depot paver edging lip spoiler on my E39 seems to be worth about .5mpg. Similar tabs in front of the tires will likely contribute as well (they were OE on my car), as will an undertray.

The choice of HD materials really comes down to the mounting surface. If you've got a mostly horizontal surface, get the paver edging with the 90deg tabs. If it's vertical, get the straight garden edging. The former is somewhat stiffer, but both will do the job.