Vlocity

I have been thinking about building a front splitter for over a year and finally found some time to approach the project over the July 4th weekend.

Some of my basic concerns for my Driver Education car that I still drive on the street was to not go to radical and limit the driving or completely upset the balance of the car. I wanted the splitter to also be very strong and to blend with the existing spoiler as much as possible on my 85. Lastly, I wanted it to work!

So with all of that in mind my starting point was a lot of lurking here through some of the past threads to see if anyone had already hit a home run. Not finding exactly what I wanted, I ventured into the garage with a large piece of cardboard and a heavily thumbed copy of [I]Competition Car Aerodynamics[I] by Simon McBeath.

Coming up with a splitter had always been the easy part, making sure that it would stay attached to the car at speed or if I had a spin at the track was something else. When I saw the skid plates that Carl offers from 928 Motorsports the mounting of the splitter suddenly became less of an issue.

My "design" is basic flat splitter made out of 1/8 inch 5051 aluminum sheet. The form is much the same as to the front spoiler outlined to extend aproximately 70 mm. This extenson seems to fall into the recommended length that my reference book gave examples of with 100 mm perhaps being the maximum.

Next I fashioned a diffuser. The diffuser helps provide a place for the air to go under the splitter and with the angle being no more than 15 degrees it should not separate from the rake. From what I've read 17 degrees or more and then the air separates. I decided to take advantage of the diffuser to also help cool the oil pan, so the diffuser is roughly an inch wider than the oil pan.

So....I made a cardboard template and then went to the aluminum sheet with a lot of care.

The aluminum was then cut and I took it to a local shop and had them stitch weld the aluminum diffuser cut out in place.

The mounting brackets are also aluminum and attach with bolts through the skid plates. The splitter is cut out to accomodate a 0 degree incline on the splitter. The fasteners are round head metric 6 & 8 mm so that there is less chance of them catching on something.

I then scuffed the top side with 200 grit paper, used a self etching primer then sprayed on a 3M texture finish and topped that after the appropriate time with a semi flat "bumper black".

The last bit was edging the splitter with an 1/8 inch thick trim piece that I bought from Pegasus Racing....that keeps me from cutting my ankles and also works well to eliminate the chipping that would attack the paint on the leading edge.

And yes it works....I didn't get much track time at Putnam last weekend due to the weather, but the car definetly has more forward bite and it ran about 10-12 degrees cooler than normal, not reaching the upper white has mark even after a 35 minute session. That also means that the brakes are getting more air and the heat exchanger for the supercharger's intercooler is running lower temps.

So... enough of all that, here are a few pictures.

F451

Very nice work!

robot808

Awesome job!!!! Can you replicate it?

Jadz928

That's beautimus!

Vlocity

Yep...can replicate, I kept my cardboard template. The issue would be the variance in the mounting points. Carl's skid plates kind of have a countour to them once they are torqued down

Ken

PorKen

Nice!

I have been thinking of making something like that, but have been trying to figure out a way to make it be able to be pushed backwards, and spring forward again.

Vlocity

Why not use an upper and lower set of aluminum angle for a "track" and then put a set of hood shocks on each end with a single mounting point?

I was actually thinking about using an actuator to retract it for loading and then just hit the switch and run it back out. I didn't want anymore complication though.

Ken

pcar928fan

That is NEAT! Agree that it might get banged up and thus some sort of "spring" or give system might be a good idea... I always like what the White Zombie had...

mark kibort

simply AWESOME!

SeanR

Very good work and damn good looking too.

BPG_Austin

Yep, nice work.

hacker-pschorr

Wow - that's awesome!!!!!

Keep us posted on production and / or if you need help. Some of us are already setup with production parts via waterjet and welding etc....

Pierre Martins

That's excellent work.

I've just posted this link in the belly pan thread btw -

http://motoring-projects.blogspot.co...nt%20splitters

DR

Ken,
Another great, well executed mod to your 928. KUDOS!!!

Makes me want to dig out the front splitter template David Lloyd sent me years ago and finally do one on my 85!!

IcemanG17

Ken
That looks great!!! But I don't think it will fit on S4's right?