Let's talk about Miata's, air dams and splitters

It looks my airdam should be here for the '90 today.

The car currently does not have the stock undertray and that hasn't been an issue for the few cool track days I've done.......but I am concerned about tracking when it's 90+ all day and some times above 100, even though it's a stock 1.6 with a coolant reroute.

Anyway......

I picked up the polyurethane copy of the Garage Vary lip sold by Flyin' Miata, Good-win-racing, etc.

I want to add a splitter to the air dam, and possibly a belly pan (or I may purchase a new stock one since mine was torn up).

Thoughts, suggestions, ideas? What material? A good source for the turnbuckle stuff, and where to mount the high side of the turnbuckles too?

For material for a splitter, I would use plywood or that stuff they make political signs. Cheap to replace when you break it.

The signs are made of coroplast, it might bend too easily, but if you sandwich multiple layers with the corrugation going in different directions (like how CF is layered) you can get more strength. The upside of coroplast is that you don't have to worry about rot or termites or other woody problems.

We need Giant Purple Snorklewacker in here. He made one for his E30:

I believe plywood is the material of choice

Cobalt makes a cheaper equivalent of the Beatrush undertray that might be worth looking into.

That said, it's still about 2x the cost of a factory one. (But WAY cooler!)

I believe most people mount the high side of the turnbuckles into the bumper support. I think Pegasus Racing is a decent source for the hardware.

Jaynen wrote: I believe plywood is the material of choice

That's what my racer buddy here at work says, for reasons unbeknownst to my own pysche, I feel philosophically opposed to putting wood on the car.

z31maniac wrote:

Jaynen wrote: I believe plywood is the material of choice

That's what my racer buddy here at work says, for reasons unbeknownst to my own pysche, I feel philosophically opposed to putting wood on the car.

Morgan says not to worry...

I have an article in one of my Racecar Engineering Magazines on using wood on racecars.

F1 says wood is good:

Technical Regulations (wiki) said: . A 10 mm[14] thick wooden plank or skid block runs down the middle of the car to prevent the cars from running low enough to contact the track surface; this skid block is measured before and after a race. Should the plank be less than 9 mm thick after the race, the car is disqualified.

z31maniac wrote:

Jaynen wrote: I believe plywood is the material of choice

That's what my racer buddy here at work says, for reasons unbeknownst to my own pysche, I feel philosophically opposed to putting wood on the car.

it's the original carbon fibre

MattGent wrote: F1 says wood is good:

Technical Regulations (wiki) said: . A 10 mm[14] thick wooden plank or skid block runs down the middle of the car to prevent the cars from running low enough to contact the track surface; this skid block is measured before and after a race. Should the plank be less than 9 mm thick after the race, the car is disqualified.

Let's not pretend that:

1. It serves an aerodynamic purpose.
2. That it's Home Depot grade plywood.

"The block is usually made of a material called Jabroc. Jabroc is made of beechwood and built in a composite process. Veneers are layered and a high strength resin is used in each layer. They are pressurized and pressed, and brought to a certain and very consistent material density. As a result each Jabroc skid plank is all but identical in terms of wear rate and material density."

But I don't want this thread to turn into a "you should or shouldn't use wood" thread.

More interested in how folks have mounted them, what they used to do so, anything that might make it easier for a first-timer, etc etc

http://www.mcmaster.com/#honeycomb-composite-panels/=kg8efm

Nathan JansenvanDoorn wrote: http://www.mcmaster.com/#honeycomb-composite-panels/=kg8efm

only available up to 2' x 4'?

OK, who broke the internet?

I did this!

First, I built an undertray. There's a skid plate under there as well due to my car's particular requirements. But you get the idea. The undertray has rivnuts on it, the screws go through the air dam and into the rivnuts.

My splitter is 0.090" aluminum (I forget what alloy) and 3" deep. It's bolted on using the same screw bolts that the undertray uses.

Longacre turnbuckles

End result. The wing is currently more effective than the front end at generating downforce, so I need a bit less ride height and a bit more splitter I suspect.

Keith are those 8" units? That's all I'm finding for the longacre stuff?

Also Keith, what front ride height are you using?

They might be 10", look on the Longacre site to see what their options are. I don't remember.

My ride height varies depending on how I'm planning to use the car. I'd have to check to see where it is right now, but I think it should be a bit lower to make full use of the aero. I've been keeping the ride height as a constant as I play with other aero aspects.

Ahh, OK. On their site the 8" is the rod length, but has a max length of 10.5"

I'm around 11.75" F 12.1" on the Vmaxx, probably a hair low, but I was too lazy to raise it before the last track day (the first weekend I had been at 12.5" and 13.1") and the car definitely felt much better at the lower height. Although I suspect I'm not far off the bumpstops at that height.