I was wondering how hard it would be to make some metal pans to cover the underside of the car...kinda help out the aerodynamics some. Could they be attached by screws into the subframeconnectors? What about the exhaust....it would have to be in the air still so as to not get too hot right? Any ideas or suggestions? I thought one pan could be under the front suspension and engine and another from the front of the floorpan to the back of the rear seat buckets and another behind the rear end sloping up to the bumper so the bumper wont cause so much drag.

 

yes, and what gauge of metal..or would skid pads (aka F1) at the frame help with the speed bumps? Might be a low rider's dream!

 

Hmmmm that's a good idea. I'll take measurments when I install my sfc's and see if it's doable.

The entire exhaust would probrably need to be ceramic coated so the heat build up won't be a problem. Then we need a drain in the front for any leaking fluids to escape.

A 3piece design would probrably work best(Center piece, Front and Rear).

This would have so many advantages if it would work. Gotta go put my car on the lift now and start measuring.

 

anyone ever thought about this? Any ideas?

 

It's a great idea. Increase acceleration, top speed, gas milage, and downforce all at the same time! I was thinking make it out of a composite material instead of metal. Use fiberglass or even carbon fibre which would be sturdier although a bit more pricey. A lightweight metal one would be covered in dents.

There might be space for a venturi tunnel and even brake cooling ducts. The front would connect to the bottom of the airdam the side to the SFC's and the back would have a diffuser (like on the back of the C5R)

And attach it with dzus fasteners or something (not screws) so it wouldn't be a PITA to work on the car.

 

wow thats alot more complex than what I had thought of, do you think you could post a drawing of your ideas? Maybe this is something people would buy if it was cheap enough!

 

some pictures I just made up

 

blue parts are venturis
green is the diffuser
front of car is on the right

 

I was using this model I found on some website. Absolutely hideous! Without the diffuser nobody would notice. This one looks like it would have the exhaust exit in the center.

 

Where did you find the model at? What format is it in? I could use that.

 

I thought of this years ago, the probelm is it is not practical on a street car.

You need to realize 2 things: first, you need to minimize the air under the car, which requires a low (to the ground) fron spoiler and side skirts that almost touch the ground. Second, you will need to cover anything sticking out under the belly in order to make the air flow more smoothly.

The engine and trans would be relatively easy to cover. Once you hit the exhaust and rear, you become troubled. You can't really run under the rear, you sorta have to work around it without covering it, otherwise the car would bottom out and tear it up. Second, it would be very hard to make a good rear venturi system that wouldn't scrape every bump since the rearend and muffler are gonna be in the way - making the venturi closer to the ground.

On a track - only car, its no sweat, no speed bumps, curbs, or potholes to worry about. A fully aerodynamically optimized 3rd gen theoretically could only need 375hp to reach 200mph (by my calcualtions), instead of the 475 or so needed in stock form. If you had 1300hp, the car would be 300mph capable like the Lingenfelter record-setting third gen.

I am not saying its impossible, mere hard to do it right when the obstacles in regular driving are placed into the formula.

 

You're totally right about that ground clearance part. It wouldn't be as effective without excessively lowering the car. I've tested the limits of ground clearance not fun. About 3" is the limit for the street.

The pan could go under the axle, I've done my exhaust that way and the only problem is I always have to jack up the car by the diff. But the resulting bulge would affect airflow.

The Jag XJ220 has aerodynamic control arms in the path of the venturi tunnels. There's lots of innovative ways to solve the problem just gotta do some research.

Anyway, with or without the venturi stuff, just a flat bottom would help a lot.

 

Nissan 350Z has one, i'm having a hard time finding a picture, so you'll have to trust me

 

I forgot who sold it but there was or is a kit out there to convert the rear end of the camaro to a vette independent rear suspension, if one did that that it would much much easyer to F1 the bottom of it w/ carbon fiber?? Also you couldn't do fromt a arms, so how yould you transition the bottom pan to the wheel wells? This is could be a really rewarding project

 

I just remembered something important.

A few years ago, one of the car mags (CC, HR, or CHP) had an article on this European dude who built a third gen for high-speed duty. The car itself from the outside wasn't too radical - it was lowered, had different spoilers, side skits, and rear wing. But when they showed the inside and underside of the car, you knew he was a nut that knew what he was doing. First he converted the front end to tube chassis and mounted a C4 Vette suspension, totally eliminating the struts and associated hardware. He then did two radical things to the rear in order to optimize aerodynamics. The first thing he did was run the exhaust through the interior, so it didn't clutter up the underside. Second, he used the C4 Vette rear suspension and made underbelly channels and venturi like we are talking about. The guy also gutted the interior and put in a mega high rpm 383 into this thing.

The result was a 750hp thirdgen that suppsedly ran 250-255mph and didn't eat up tires (it was only 2600lbs and had ZR1 rubber).

He did add some other durability goodies that are necessary: full rollcage; extinguishers; alcon brakes; rearend, PS, oil, and trans coolers (it was a manual for obvious reasons).

It wasn't all that impressive to look at, but it had the right stuff in the right places. Not bad for a car that cost about $100k to build.

 

well carbon fiber is rather expensive, and all this effort into a design....there wouldnt be that much gain for a normal person would there...i mean, 300-400 hp maybe lowered 1" or so...the heat from the exhaust (have to be ceramic coated i assume) and the lessened ground clearance from the venturis, it wouldn tbe worth it would it?

 

Exhaust through the interior? How exactly was it routed?

It wouldn't have to be carbon fiber, fiberglass could work too. Maybe a flat bottom for street cars, and venturi style for race cars. Actually I think there would be room for 3" high venturis that would still be about level with the ground effects.

To keep exhaust heat from building up you could add louvers in some areas under the exhaust. And they would also act as drain holes from water and leaks.

 

for the center section, how about making two seperate, long parts, one for each side of the exhaust/driveshaft. that would smooth out the floor and since you won't be too close to the exhaust you can use fiberglass or something else lightweight

 

Did anyone ever try this out? I just may have to try it for the hell of it. I'm going to look into it tomorrow. Use some sort of a medium-guage sheet metal and figure out some way to attach it.

I wouldn't deal with any venturis or anything, seeing as I don't know exactly how they work/function, and it'd make things complicated.I'd just end up covering everything pretty flat, with a possible minor bulge in the middle to contain the driveshaft and I-pipe. If done properly, I think its possibly to make the bottom fairly flat while leaving the exhaust somewhat out in the open to cool off. Using louvres every so often would make it easier to expell hot air.

 

http://www.pitstopusa.com/searchresu...ategoryID=2233

these headers go over the bellhousing and exit the right side of the car about where the the bottom of the door meets the rocker and rear fender.
I've done the floor pan thing, the way to do is is by tabbing off of the sheetmetal and using a DZUS type fastener.
http://www.dzus.co.uk/Live/Dzus/CMS..../Home/HomePage

To do this with a stock car would be a major PITA, It would be easier to start witha SCCA "A" sedan car or something and go from there.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...Ofrontrigh.jpg

At least if you did this on a street car you could just add a tube subframe. sfc's and you wouldn't have to follow any rules, it might be fun
Or you could just build one of these:
http://www.skipscars.com/Skoal%20pictures.htm