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Splitter idea


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Call me ignant, but I was always under the impression the "purpose" of a splitter was to take advantage of the air that built up on/was blocked by an airdam- The idea being you put a platform (the splitter) under this air (which, when blocked by the airdam, stagnates, builds up, and increases pressure) for it to push down on, causing some downforce (yay downforce!).  Of course doing -other- things to lower pressure under this platform (Ie a belly pan to help keep air flowing quickly/smoothly under it, diffusers to accelerate the air further, etc) should yield a greater pressure differential and increases the overall downforce in theory, but in the end again the point was fas far as i knew,  to simply put a platform under this pressure zone.



 

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Looks intruiging.  Do you have any plans/methods to measure its effectiveness? Or mostly a "seam of the pants/lap times" kind of deal? And I know I tend to ask this a lot, but may I ask what kind of material that airdam was made out of?

Edited by Sideways
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The Airdam is that .125" ABS I think. Molds under heat, flexes nicely but ultimately cracks when abused.

 

No intention of measuring the splitter in any scientific way. I may not even run it for a while.

But mocking it up anyway.

I break a lot of stuff and if I go off track and snowplow through gravel it would be ugly.

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Im actually hoping to use lexan to make a grill-block off plate for my Z when I get back home in june.  I love some of the block off plates others have made around here, i just tend to dislike the look of a giant plate for a front end.  I figure this way I can keep the original(ish) look, and still get the benefits of having that gaping maw blocked off- Plus the ricer in me rather likes the look of my massive fmic.  Whichll be another interesting aspect, theres 0 room to duct a opening to the thing, so itll be a trial/error with templates for awhile until i figure out how small of an opening i can run without having a negative impact on the cooling.  I suppose ill try cutting the grill size in half and then go from there..

Edited by Sideways
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Mostly finished the new Airdam this weekend and kicked it out wider to cover the tires and may look at some off the shelf "dive planes" also. 

 

For all the radiuses in the ABS you see here it requires no thermo forming.

The inlet ducting did need heat and I just used a few heat guns to get it just pliable.

Pretty amazing stuff.

 

While I am serious about car and the progress and the modifications... we are also having fun.

The Splitter is still under review, although I really like the idea of finishing closing up the inlet ducting.

 

Splitter mounting scheme is looking good...  2 horizontal male / female pins in the back by the steering rack, the splitter just slides into those, then lift up and 2 more vertical m/f pins receive the front of the splitter and take cross pins or cotter pins to secure.   Then the stay-rods in front which are still under review by the committee...  (burp)

 

post-1894-0-85576300-1395675675_thumb.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Man, that airdam on the bottom of the splitter strikes me as a really bad idea. I suppose they probably have a high enough ride height that it wouldn't do anything anyway, so the get the look of the splitter and the cd reduction of the airdam. Then on the hipo version it actually looks right, so that one must either be low enough to use it, or at least you could lower it to be useful. 

 

Interesting to see the different shapes on the undertray. Would still like to try my idea from p1 on this thread and make a venturi under a flat tray...

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I was pitted beside a guy driving a newish vette at the track last week.  The bottom of the nose looked a lot like the ford piece, a big plastic undertray, generally flat, with a roughly 2" air dam mounted back about the rad support, probably 2 feet past the front. 

 

I got a good look helping him load it on his trailer,  I suspect it's mostly there to avoid curbs and wheelstops.

 

jt

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  • 2 months later...

OK, time to make my splitter, and the front end bodywork will largely be built off of the splitter, so it's decision time.

 

Option A is a narrow(er) front end with relatively flat fenders angling out past the front of the tires. This gives less area for the splitter to be in front of a relatively blunt surface, so would make the splitter less effective, but should increase the effectiveness of the bodywork sucking pressure out from under the hood, since I don't have any fender liners.

 

Option B is a wider front end with a sharper corner. This will make the splitter more effective while making the low pressure at the front wheel less pronounced.

 

I'm leaning towards A. Any opinions?

 

Also trying to figure out how close to get the end of the splitter vs the wheel. Thinking since I'll have the suction out the fender, might be better not to make it super close. Opinions there?

post-553-0-24646100-1402950043_thumb.jpg

post-553-0-00926400-1402950045_thumb.jpg

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Cary pointed out that the splitter can be straight across in the front in XP. Had totally forgotten about that. That being the case, I think B makes more sense. I think you're right Cameron that for autox the bigger splitter will have more effect than getting more air out of the engine compartment. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Top time attack aero is worth looking at, some incredible stuff around. Basically for a splitter the bigger the better with the proviso that it should be practical and make sense in relation to the car and the law of diminishing returns as far as size goes.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I need to get my splitter project going ASAP..

Now that the car is behaving consistently...

 

I think an angular shape is easier to cut..

Basically like a T-shirt shape...    Straight line across the front below the inlet area, angled back on each side, tapering back to the cross member area.

Rear pins for easy installation with clips of suitable strength up front.

 

Hmmm.. kitchen remodel / splitter fabrication...

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  • 10 months later...

I had cut the splitter out of 1/4 plywood and then put one layer of FG on it and it was still pretty flexy, so I put it aside and started focusing on the FG front end. Now that the front FG is almost finished, and I gotta say, for being the first thing I ever made from FG, I'm feeling pretty good about it. Went to bolt my splitter on, realized that it was cut uneven so it was where I wanted on one side and not long enough of the other. At this point I just want the thing driving, so I bought a 1/2" piece of birch instead of the thinner wood + FG idea. Read online that birch wood is the stuff to use, and the wisdom of crowds came through again. Very stiff. 

 

Bolted it up and although I designed the splitter to move up and down about 2" so I could set the height off of the ground, I'm finding that I'm hittting the swaybar with the rear of the splitter. Could get it up another .75" or so, will have to redo the swaybar mounts. The swaybar is mounted on heims, so I can change the brackets, maybe even just redrill the holes. The splitter also pivots so that if I hit something it hopefully won't get destroyed. To allow for this I was going to use cables in the front, but then thought carabiners and a turnbuckle would be good so that I could adjust the height with the threaded clevises in back and then just lengthen or shorten the turnbuckles, but the issue I'm having with that is that the carabiner and turnbuckle setup is too long at its shortest setting, so might have to go back to fixed length cables. There will be a skirt to close off the gap between the splitter and the bottom of the air dam, slotted so that I can move the splitter up and down.

End goal is to have the xmember at about 2 or 2.5" off the ground. The skid plate I put under the rack hangs down another 1". Would actually like to run the xmember at more like 1.5 or 1.75, but can't do it due to the skid plate. When I get to aligning and bumpsteering, I might try to move the rack up so that I can remove the skid plate altogether (xmember is slotted too so I could move the control arm up and not screw up bumpsteer), but this aftermarket rack hangs down below the xmember and I didn't want to smack it on a curb and disconnect it from the car...

post-553-0-99987400-1434140538_thumb.jpg

post-553-0-87347600-1434140539_thumb.jpg

post-553-0-62227700-1434140540_thumb.jpg

Edited by JMortensen
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  • 3 weeks later...

I had cut the splitter out of 1/4 plywood and then put one layer of FG on it and it was still pretty flexy, so I put it aside and started focusing on the FG front end. Now that the front FG is almost finished, and I gotta say, for being the first thing I ever made from FG, I'm feeling pretty good about it. Went to bolt my splitter on, realized that it was cut uneven so it was where I wanted on one side and not long enough of the other. At this point I just want the thing driving, so I bought a 1/2" piece of birch instead of the thinner wood + FG idea. Read online that birch wood is the stuff to use, and the wisdom of crowds came through again. Very stiff. 

 

Bolted it up and although I designed the splitter to move up and down about 2" so I could set the height off of the ground, I'm finding that I'm hittting the swaybar with the rear of the splitter. Could get it up another .75" or so, will have to redo the swaybar mounts. The swaybar is mounted on heims, so I can change the brackets, maybe even just redrill the holes. The splitter also pivots so that if I hit something it hopefully won't get destroyed. To allow for this I was going to use cables in the front, but then thought carabiners and a turnbuckle would be good so that I could adjust the height with the threaded clevises in back and then just lengthen or shorten the turnbuckles, but the issue I'm having with that is that the carabiner and turnbuckle setup is too long at its shortest setting, so might have to go back to fixed length cables. There will be a skirt to close off the gap between the splitter and the bottom of the air dam, slotted so that I can move the splitter up and down.

 

End goal is to have the xmember at about 2 or 2.5" off the ground. The skid plate I put under the rack hangs down another 1". Would actually like to run the xmember at more like 1.5 or 1.75, but can't do it due to the skid plate. When I get to aligning and bumpsteering, I might try to move the rack up so that I can remove the skid plate altogether (xmember is slotted too so I could move the control arm up and not screw up bumpsteer), but this aftermarket rack hangs down below the xmember and I didn't want to smack it on a curb and disconnect it from the car...

 

Sweet looking ride! Do you have any other pictures posted? 

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