Project “My Fiancée’s” Miata: Part 11 – How to add a Professional Awesome Splitter, an APR Performance Wing, and Improve Your Lap Times

To mount the splitter to the car, we found these slick, quick removable boat deck hinges on Amazon. Using 6 locations, we mounted these hinges to the splitter with 2 on the main frame, 2 on the spurs, and 2 on the leading edge. The hinges were mounted to the car with 2 on the main frame rails, 2 on the front frame rail horns, and then 2 on the tie down locations, within the bumper’s front opening. We used  5/16” aluminum tubing, with ¼” rod ends to allow for some adjustment of the angle and height of the splitter. Lastly, we added another angle aluminum piece to the back edge of the splitter, with two pieces of aluminum extending rearward to lock in the splitter in place after it was adjusted.

With the splitter mounted, it was easy to see how much the tires extended out of the front bumper and into the freestream of airflow. This is terrible for drag and can create lift where the tire meets the road. We used some simple ABS plastic sheets we had lying around to create tire spats that bolted to the inner bumper and also bolted to the splitter via aluminum angle strips. This had a double benefit of strengthening the outside edge of the splitter, while also keeping the spat out of the way of the tire during cornering. We finally added a cable from the upper edge of the tire spat to the front, far-forward edge of the splitter, one last piece of the puzzle to reduce the chance of rubbing the splitter on the ground under braking or in the corners.