Ferrari's underbody work

[xLegendOZWest]

anyone know the melting point of that stuff? i foresee massive ownage from toasty catbacks lol

[deansbimmer]

Holy shit this is the oldest thread I've ever seen bumped... And as noted, air travels faster over the top of an aircraft wing which creates lift. The same would go for a car if all you did was reduce underbody turbulence. You'd have to get the car 2 inches off the ground and have one hell of a splitter. This is lame.

[fryerfighter94]

just get a splitter. or if you want to, make one. i agree thinking that this venturi would be badass, but would not be worth it.

[Jaxx_]

I am the type where I want my cat to look completely original, or at least factory. Well I was thinking about removing the seal that is at the top of the engine bay that seals the hood and creating the vent I was talking about there. I do not like the idea of hood vents, so this would allow the air to move and no one would ever see that modification.

Just do the panels on the bottom of the engine bay. more than that, you're pretty much wasting your time. Even about 12" of the stuff will improve airflow to the engine bay, as well as stability from about 50mph+. MPG will also be improved.

Plastic, aluminum, cardboard, whatever the case, make sure it doesn't come off at speed, especially if it's metal.

[SA E30]

I think you guys should do a little more research on this topic before even attempting this undertaking.

You will be surprised how complex it is to implement a flat under body. For some insight look at all the new BMW's they all have a flat undertray of sorts.

We are doing something similar on the race car. With venting in the necessary places. It's a huge under taking and for the mean time we are only running front splitter, and diffuser/ flat under panel to the front of the gas tank.

[bmwstephen]

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/volvo-850-coroplast-wonder-4093.html#post48169

This looks interesting

[fiftytakedowns]

^^^^^

Prius owners do this a shit ton for better gas milage.
IMO you should do the unerbody for better MPGS.
my buddy TJTS1 or seomthign did this to his BRIck shaped volvo and got +3 MPG.

and go to tap plastics, and just get some plastic to line the underside with. Much cheaper, just as effective.

wierd, that looks awfully familiar

[SamE30e]

It'll prob keep rust at bay during the winter months. I'm interested in learning more about this. Looking at the underbody, not sure where you could improve? the spare wheel area and the engine bay I guess.

Look how clean that battery tray is!

[nando]

the weenie 1" deep splitters everyone uses on E30s isn't going to do anything

you could probably see a difference if you built it up to the front subframe. Also keep in mind, most autox classes you can't go past the centerline of the front wheels.

[europeanplates]

I am not sure if this was brought up but the M3 does have some underside panles around the spare and such.

I use coroplast daily and it would most likely work.

Tyler

[///M42 sport]

^^ cool let us know

Also didnt some e30s come with a tranny cover?

[Stephen]

Interesting. Doesnt look like something id probably do unless it were a splitter with a few inches of undertray. I'm in for more low and MPG though. ;)

[Hallen]

The OP assumes that you can get something for nothing. If you increase downforce, you are also going to increase induced drag. The downforce is a benefit on a race car, but notsomuch on a street car. It's just going to decrease your fuel mileage and you will get little to no benefit because you'll never go fast enough for the downforce to be effective.

For most E30's, if you can reduce the under-car turbulence and clean up the airflow as it leaves the back of the car, you will get some nice benefit in reducing drag. This will help with fuel mileage and top speed. But it would be tough to do. Heat dissipation and ground clearance would be major issues.

Race cars can be somewhat deceiving in what they do. Some series/leagues require a mostly flat bottomed car to keep teams from using "ground effects", which is basically what the OP was talking about. The best form of ground effects are tunnels built into the undertray that create a venturi (think of two basically hour glass shaped tunnels). Then, you add a diffuser at that back of the car to slow that air back down and reduce the turbulence as the air expands back out again. This both increases downforce and reduces some of the parasitic drag. This type of setup on an E30 would be very difficult to design.

[///M42 sport]

My objective was to increase mpg on the highway. Not much can be done in the city except for changing driving habits.

I hope to try the coroplast as soon as I have free time. I was thinking the spare tire area and the engine bay.

BTW in comparing mpg's with a IS spoiler to w/o there is a 1-2 mpg diff. Its pretty amazing how a 2in spoiler up front has so much affect on efficiency.

[nando]

the "is" trunk spoiler should also improve mileage by 1-2%. They work by reducing drag on the car by breaking the turbulence behind the trunk.