Next up were Verus’s splitter end plates. These bolt to the leading edge of the wheel well opening and deflecting air that would hit the tire, causing drag and pressurizing the wheel well which causes front lift. They also act as a stagnation trap to increase the pressure on top of the splitter to create more downforce. Furthermore, they also help generate and reinforce the side vorticites created by the canards.
To install the endplates, you remove the push pins that hold the plastic fender liner in place and replace them with riv-nuts. Then you can bolt the endplates in with some button head allen bolts. The only, thing we didn’t like is that the end plates are made of dry pre-preg and have a matt finish that doesn’t match the glossy carbon on the rest of the car and the other Verus parts.
Our splitter is more narrow than the Verus splitter so we made these extensions for the sides of the splitter from some carbon fiber plates we bought off of ebay that is supposed to be for making RC car chassis.
We stuck the plates to the top of our splitter with 3M automotive grade double stick tape and then bolted the endplates to the extension plate.
6 comments
Those wheel well deflectors are interesting. I often see people adding a splitter ramp in that area. Those two things seem like they would have the opposite effects. Any reason to use one vs. the other?
Better to use both but I didn’t want to cut up the bumper to do it.
The fender blades look gtr’ish, no? Something I’ve always wondered about carbon fiber is this. Back in the 80s all bikes with aluminium frames we’re bare aluminum to show it off. After some time, the manufacturers painted the frames as people just knew most performance bikes were aluminum framed. When do you think this will happen to cf?
Awesome content as always
WHELL WELL AIR DEFLECTORS! For years I have been wondering what those are and what they do. I bought an E36 M3 years back that came with those from the factory and one had been ripped off sometime before I bought the car. No matter what I typed into google, I could never figure out what they are for. Thank you so much for answering this long nagging question of mine.
These are significantly important low buck mods that should be done before any dramatic aero is done. It’s interesting how much the sound of the vehicle at high speed changes, with these slats, blades, and flaps installed.
On older cars, I always make a point to install slats ahead of tires and wheel wells, but they do easily get ripped off, usually by an aggressive speed bump.
The most modern bumpers create ‘air curtains’ around the tires, but of course, that requires a specific type of ‘nozzle’ and ducting which is very difficult to retrofit onto older vehicles.
From what I know about most canards, it’s the way the vortex interacts with the turbulence coming from the tire and the wheel well that makes them effective. When they are attached to a splitter the vortex can act like a ‘virtual’ side skirt and prevent air from coming under the car disturbing the flow on a flat floor. Sometimes you will see them blended into the bodywork ahead of the rear wheel well, too, to keep a rear diffuser functioning. Ferrari does this on some of their cars.
Of course, if you can capitalize off of any CFD done on your specific car shape, or wind tunnel time, that would be ideal.
I kind of wish manufacturers would release that data to the public so people could be more informed when they do modifications, but I won’t hold my breath waiting for that to happen. Fortunately, the GR86 is popular enough that you can use that CFD data as a good reference.
All this stuff is what makes me think that the era of the HUGE REAR WING is finally over. I have always thought that a really nice duckbill rear spoiler with a rear diffuser just looks so much better while generating enough downforce for a road car.
A wing is way more effective than a duck bill that might live in a separated or partially separated flow.