Looking for a nice front splitter that will fit on my oem lip...can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

Any hardware store that sells abs plastic and a couple of tie rods. Then it's hacksaw time!

 

Haha...man Im good at very few things and doing ANYTHING handy is not one of them! I wish I could do it myself (I want eyelids too but there's no way I could make those)...

 

Seibon, re-amemiya, APR and just go search around...

 

Yep, my point is that there's no company that makes a classic splitter for our car. Fancy air dams, yes. Functional splitters... not many.
Visit japanparts.com if your interest is mostly aesthetical, they have a very nice lineup that will, at least, help you make an idea

 

APR has a nice one, check out Trackrat's car.
I think I have a pic, let me see if I can find it.


edit: found it!
disregard the damage to the car, it was involved in an accident that morning but this is/was a great looking splitter. The only thing I might change is to make the rods black to blend in a bit more.

 

I believe TeamRX8 has tbk's old APR splitter as well. VS8 had one as well.

 

Look closely at that picture....any splitter that provides any downforce will try and pull the front bumper off the car

 

Chad D has a nice looking one. I'll see if I can find a pic

 

http://aprperformance.com/index.php?...d=76&Itemid=49
You have to custom order one from APR i guess...

 

Are you looking for function or fashion?

I run a 4" fuctional splitter made out of alumalite. I had a support bar built that is riveted inside the bumper and attaches to the frame with the crash bar bolts. I have splutter struts made with a threaded tube and male him joints that connect to the crash bar and splitter with quick disconnect pens and custom brackets.

My splitter is for function only but I had it painted so it looks cool too. But driveway clearence suffer.

If you want fashion, you want about 2" and you won't need struts or a support bar.

Pm me if your interested in having something made. My fabricator can reproduce something to your liking.

 

Yeah, APR products suck but i think that he needs it just for the looks.

You can make a perfectly functional splitter\underbody panel for less than 80$. Bolt it to the rear cross member (behind oil pan) and use 2 tie rods inserted to the crash bar. Job done.
A splitter doesn't have to provide downforce, if it does it is no longer a splitter

 

The APR splitter would be fine, but you would pay a lot of $ for what you are getting. Alumalite is easy to work with and very strong for its weight.

There is no reason you have to go all the way back to the rear crossmember. Mine only goes to the inside edge of the bumper, I wish I had run it another 3 inches to take up the gap left between the stock underpanel and the mazdaspeed bumper. However for function, it wont make much difference on a stock bumper plus it just makes it bigger, heavier and harder to get on and off.

If you do run it back to the crossmember you could probably get away without the struts. The extra strength with all the material and second mounting point would be suffeciant for a 2" splitter. With a functional 3-5" splitter, struts are important but unless bolted to the frame they wont hold much weight.

Is that a joke, or are you serious? Besides visual asthetics, whats the point if it doesnt produce downforce? Even a 2" splitter bolted to the bumper will provide some aerodynamic improvements. You see it on race cars and quality aftermarket bumpers all the time. Nascar cup cars run a 2" splitter now and the Mazdaspeed bumper as a 1" splitter on the corners.

Keep in mind the cup cars dont have as much frontal downforce this year because of the bumper change. Also, last year with the bif 4-5 splitters, they only ran to the inside of the bumper where they were connected to a strong frame (for impact strength)

 

3 inches is enough to make the splitter functional. 5 makes close to no difference.
The one we're building replaces the whole underpanel and is part of a flat underbelly. That's another reason why we don't need a bunch of metal parts bolted to the chassis to make it work and hold. Completely different approach but since I was taking the hacksaw out i thought that it was wise to do something serious and simple
It's not a joke, absolutely. The addition of a splitter may modify the downforce as a consequence, it's main purpose is just that to split air. Otherwise it would be called airdam, spoiler, wing etc depending on its function. Many rulebooks are pretty clear in stating what you can and cannot do aero wise and splitters are often legal where wings\canards etc are not.
The second statement only regards that particular series, so i wouldn't take it as an absolute reference.

 

Yes which is why 4" is very common. The bumper construction and ground clearance effect the results but wthout extensive computer modeling or wind tunnel testing the best size/design is hard or impossible to acheive. Using other race cars as models is the best approach.

I wanted to replace the whole plastic underpanel and I probably still will in the future. However I disagree with the big 1 piece splitter and underpanel design. Not for function but for simplicity. If and when you hit that splitter on something, you will now have to replace the entire splitter and underpanel. It will cost more and be more diffiult then simply having a spair splitter in the garage ready to install. In fact I have 2 designs and my spare can be mounted if my current one is damaged.

Also, you still want to attach the splitter/underpanel to the bumper and with no added structural support at or near the bumper mounting point, any minor hit of the splitter could cause extensive bumper damage.

I had 2 incident with my splitter that wrinkled the edge of the splitter. The first cracked my bumper because of my stock tow hook which is why I have a custom crash bar with tow hook. The second caused no bumper damage despite extensive splitter damage. Even with that splitter damage, I simply took a large pair of pliers and a hammer and I straightened it out enough to be funtional. Thats one of the many advantages of a material like alumalite vs CF, ABS or plywood with other materials added.

Idealy, you build an underpanel that has its own bracing with splitter mounting points that are after the bumper edge. So if you hit the splitter, the impact is absorbed by the underpanel and not the bumper. That underpanel should be connected to the frame via a crash bar mounting bolt or someother frame point.

Also, if you notice on the stock plastic underpanel, it is angled down from the bumper back and then parallels the ground back to the rear mounting point. Not sure why mazda did that, Either for better ground clearance in the front or for the aerodynamic improvements that design make. Basicly is the ventiri effect. You want a large mouth opening, reduce the size and have a long throat back to the diffuser opening. With my mazdaspeed bumper I loose that angled underpanel. I will want to redesign my underpanel in the future.

Entire vehicle underbelly? I have plans to do the same. I am going to use lightweight and thin aluminum. I wont cover the exhaust and I will use a series of Naca Ducts to bring in fresh air to the transmission and reversed naca ducts to let the hot air and any air presure escape. I will probably put louvers under the transmission as well. In the rear of the car by the differental I will either leave it exposed to fresh air or again use naca ducts and louvers. Because of the close proximity of the exhuast to the differental, heat shielding will be used to keep the diff temps down.

When everything is done, I am going to coat it with Lizard skin sound insulation to reduce noise but mostly to protect the bare metal.

Yes that is technicaly correct. The splitter itself does not make downforce, it is there to split the air, sending air either under the car or above the splitter to pile up against the bumper which in turn pushes down on the splitter resulting in downforce.

I woudl be interested in seeing your finished products. My ideas and projects have been in the works for a long time and have moved slowly. I do reading on aero, look at wind tunnel tested race car designs and spit ball with more knowledgable people every chance I get. At this point I think I have a good theoretical design but we will see how things pan oou once the plans are put into action.

 

Your point is more than sound, that's why mounting the tie rods to the crash bar or other chassis part is the best way for me as well.
Abs is cheap, that's why making an entire splitter\underbelly is easy. It takes around 1hr when you have the dime (plywood rules!). In my case, if I were to damage the splitter it would be... well... my smallest problem

The stock underpanel is designed to be flat enough yet provde the right flow to the radiator and venting behind it. That's our biggest concern when "sealing" the area. Reverse naca ducts work wonders, so do louvers.

I'm lucky enough to have a track buddy that works as an aerodynamic engineer, the kind of stuff he tests is impressive and the access to many expensive modelling softwares is impressive. However, wool wire and a camera strapped underneath the car works wonders lol. So do susp. potentioneters and a bunch of other gizmos.

My finished products will require a lot of time unfortunately. I have other priorities right now so the car is on jack stands and will be like that for a long while.

If you want I can share something about the underpanel\flat underbelly via pm perhaps, i guess that the OP just wanted to have a nice looking splitter!

 

Yah I started my project a year ago, and has only made small progress.

Splitter struts mounted to the crash bar will work great againt vertical impact but will provide vertualy no resistance to horizontal. Thats why I like the support bar.

ABS is much more expenive for the same strength (twisting bending) then Alumalite and it is much heavier. Although ABS will provide more horizontal protection in a frontal impact.

If however you are going with some very thin abs, maybe 1/16", it will be afordable and would bend on impact without transfering the impact and causing more damage.

Your right, were way off topic for the OP. When I make more progress I will PM you and post pics on my build page.

 

1/6th inch of ABS will be to thin and cause to much sag/flex after a track day or highway drive.

I am currently using 1/8'' ABS for looks, doubt that its of any use whats so ever. It was pretty cheap either way. paid 40.00 for 6' x 2' sheet from a local sign shop.

 

I dont suggest anything thinner then 1/4 abs, but I have seen guys use 1/16th and the idea was to have it flex and turn into more of an air dam. Kind of stange but they said it worked.

If I was using ABS I would go with 1/3" or 1/2 which is expensive. A 1/4" alumalite works great and a 4X8 sheet goes for around $100, 1/3" goes for a little more but would be more then strong enough.

 

4mm is what I use. Keep in mind that thickness also depends on how many mounting points you have

 

4mm is a little bigger then 1/4" buts thats still pretty thin. If you only use 2 splitter struts it will flex a lot on the sides but if you use 4 you would be ok. I use 6MM alumalite with 2 struts and I dont get any noticable flex unless I physicaly push down on the far corner.

 

Yes, as I said it depends on how many mounting points you have.
Removing the undertray allows you to use all of its existing holes, thus making the abs stiff enough under the car and having only 75\80mm of "protrusion" the bolts and tie rods do the job well.
Moreover, if it's parallel then it shouldn't see forces strong enough to "flex" it given the small leverage.

 

Tegris ......

 

For those who dont know what Tegris is. http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar...ory?id=3060814

This is the stuff I originaly wanted to make my splitter out of. I have a fabricator who uses it but getting the stuff and having it cut to your specifications is not cheap. Or atleast not through the source my fabricator uses.

Additionaly it is not very light, It is usually used in 8MM thicknesses and weighes about twice as much as my alumalite for the same thickness.

I have 2 used COT splitters. I wanted to see if I could make a splitter from them but they are the wrong shape and too wide.

 

Could you show a pic of where the mounting point on crash bar is?
Or do we have to drill a hole for the support rod?

Thanks,