sheet aluminum undercarriage ?

[1gcrazy]

I think whoever mentioned selling them has a great idea. If they're not careful...

I think that belly pans are a great idea. I'm not trying to get complicated on what they do apposed to what they hinder. They keep things stream line and they can help your damn car stick to the asphalt. Simple.
The only downside I can really see is weight and cost. Does anyone disagree?

You know what I find helarious? Some of these guys on here will actually drain their windshield wiper fluid from their street cars to save weight but you place this on their platter and they tell you it's obsurd.

But hey thats just me. I'd suffer from actually being able to see and be .02541 tenths slower to that next stop light.

How about we stop and do some tests. I just looked up a guy putting coryplast or whatever type of plastic under his car for better gas mileage...
It's crazy that people are actually as nuts about cars as we are but....instead of horsepower...its gas savings. Heres the link:
http://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=671

I think we should send this one into mythbusters.

 

[Raph]

well, lots of german cars have fully covered under pinnings.. because of noise reduction, aerodynamics and better fuel economy (autobahn.. cruising speeds here are higher, flat underpinnings save fuel)

look at any C-or E-class benz from underneath.. even the suspension parts have plastic parts to smooth em out..

Audis too,

hell ,2gs have a wind deflector under the rear end (mine does)


the opel speedster,elise,exige,lotus europa all have fully covered under carriages

the A.class is fully covered, the Eco versions of the Opel Astra all had aluminun covers under the car to help mileage

 

[eclipse_20g]

My C5 is flat on the bottom just as the C6. Ive had it to 165. Can anyone say stable as 65?? I knew you could.

 

[Achelea]

*Zombie Thread!*

I wonder, has anyone made any further progress relating to the belly pans?

I've just spent the last few hours reading other sites about Aero modifications, and it brought this to mind.

IE: They discovered that an inexpensive under carriage tray actually improved intercooler and radiator performance.

 

[broken_eclipse]

I've often considered doing this since i can get a 4x8 sheet of aluminum (even colored!) for dirt cheap. My only concerns are how hard it would be to work on anything under the car and what if this giant piece of aluminum somehow managed to detach itself from my car going down the highway?

On a track-only car i would do it in a heartbeat, it's no secret that the aerodynamics under the car play a roll just as much as the aero over the car hence the exotics as mentioned and the large amounts of diffusers on all out track cars.

 

[Achelea]

Well, for how hard it is to work on the car, If I was gonna make it, it would be sectional, so that way I'm not removing the whole thing to change a single bolt.

As for disconnecting itself, Ideally you would manufacture mounting points and use plenty of fasteners to keep it secure. Hypermilers tend to build a frame, attach that to the car, and connect the tray to the frame. If you build it right, it won't come off, and if it does come loose, you'd know before it broke free. Or at the very least, you'd see where it's coming loose.

The other thing is they discovered making just a front tray, it improved the pressure differential from the front to the back of the radiator and intercooler.

Apparently the writer found out that his car was actually pushing air out the radiator when he's going down the road since the air was not being pulled out, nor was it being pushed effectively through the rad and IC.

I'm thinking the trick is making the most of the factory set up. IE the belly pan has ducts to pull air from the engine bay if you don't have a ducted hood. Though I'd hate to put the hood vent on and tray on and find out that they are defeating each other. Doing both would ideally lower under hood temps as well improve the intercooler efficiency. Like, how many DSMers still have the splash guards?

 

[rdgsdsm]

Haven't seen them on dsm's but have seen pretty many on evos and either bushur or ams makes them for the evo

 

[Achelea]

Here's one of the articles I was reading about it. Even has the tools used.

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And here's another spot that talks about the effeciency of under body trays in relation to fuel economy.
65+ Vehicle modifications for better fuel economy - EcoModder.com

If it works for Eco drivers, wouldn't it work for speedsters? After all, these eco guys aren't exactly racing.

 

[97 Demon]

I will do some looking into this to see if I can come up with anything and how much work it would take to make one fit under our cars

 

[shadow001dsm]

I made my own out of alluminum sheet metel. Took me forever to do this, took my 6 months of R&D. I did mine in 4 sections. After messuring everything out and looking into other designs, i finally cut mine in the patterns i had designed. The front engine shield is split into 2 peices, then right after there is the center section then the section under the spare tire area. and yes adding a convex hump in the center helps with down force. but theres several theries and ideas on which way is best to form it.