Since racing seems to destroy most fiberglass splitters with ease, I decided to go another route and fabricate mine out of plywood. I got the whole splitter out of one sheet of 4-ply furniture grade plywood, and with some epoxy resin on the outside, sanded and smoothed with a coat of paint (and possibly clearcoated), I may have the cheapest splitter around. It won't be attached at all to the front cover, but rather hung from the frame rails with some custom brackets I haven't made yet, so any off course excursions should result in minimal additional damage. Speedsource used to build theirs out of Jabroc but that stuff is some expensive sh......!! I'll take mine and save the rest for tires!

 

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Interesting idea.

 

interesting... let us know how it works!

 

While that is clever, I dunno how I feel about the possibility of a big piece of wood flying underneath my car and possibly screwing something up. Still a pretty handy idea.

 

how heavy is that thing? looks good so far though

 

I think I saw something similar on a SCC budget project car several years back. An excellent idea for a cheap splitter for a track car.

 

I'm interested in seeing the finished product all sanded and painted. I bet that thing ways a bit though....

 

With some more sanding I think the final result could be pretty nice.

 

You would think that might be a problem, but I've seen them take some pretty good "offs" and survive with little to no damage. They take a beating far better than the fiberglass versions, and when your racing the 50-50 rule works great. "If it looks good from 50 feet at 50+ mph then it passes!"

While I designed and built my own, I certainly am not the first to use wood. I just thought that someone might like to see you can build one "on the cheap".

My trusty bathroom scale says it's 26 lbs.

 

Same thing I thought of when I first saw it.

 

By the way, I templated everything so that I can duplicate it quite easily if it ever gets damaged. I may even build a spare just for no other reason that to have one. That's what the roll of art paper was used for.

I included a pic of how the layers came to fit on one piece of wood. Once I mount it I'll try to post pics of the brackets. I may even consider some lightening measures once I get the mounting set. I figure I could get it down to under 20 lbs. if I get creative.

 

May not be lightweight but I bet it does it's job.... hell it's not the car itself is made outta tin can and stoof. Cars in general are the worst machines ever.

 

Another idea would be to use ABS plastic or Acrylic. like this guy there

-> http://e30m3performance.com/installs...er/split_1.htm

 

nice fluidyne oil cooler. If you take the 12an fittings back down to a 10an you may want to check that the depth on the adaptors meets the actual sealing surface.

when I did mine I had to take almost a .25 inch off the bottom of the adapters as the 12an nipples were to short.

does work VERY well.

and may I suggest lexan?

 

I would suggest going to maybe 1/8" ply, lots lighter, then cut away all that extra material you've got there on those mounting pads or whatever you want to call them, that's unnecessary weight.

1/8" lexan works well and that's what the guy I help out uses, and it survived an off course excursion with not too much damage.

It's a natural composite, so you've got a composite splitter/spoiler!

IIRC, F1 cars use wood on their bottoms as skid plates.

 

in my head i thought this couldn't be good but after looking at the pics it looks very well designed. great work

 

<--pushes away from the desk.....

 

I finally saw the pics (wont load at home) and that is far nicer than the one that SCC made. Theirs was truly ghetto-tastic, but this one looks pretty nice.

 

Thanks guys for all the props!

This is what you do when you have more time than money to spend on the car (ya know, wife, kids, and all that...). But I'm pleased so far with how it's turning out given the investment $$$.

Black91n/a, I looked at the 1/8" and thought about it hard, but I wanted something that I know would take some abuse and after contacting some fellow racers that have done them as well I settled on the 1/2". I had planned on cutting some of the material off the pads after I finish the mounts. Should net me a few pounds.

And to your point about the F1 cars, I think they use the mega-$$$ Jabroc I spoke of earlier. Don't bother pricing that stuff for a job like this! I even looked at some surplus aluminum honeycomb sandwiched with carbon fiber, but it was too thick and still too expensive even at the surplus house.

ajhehr, thanks for the heads up on the fittings. I am using -10 lines.

Interesting reading on the link to the splitter page. I had thought about adding another layer beneath the main plank but only on the sides, thus creating a "tunnel" effect (not quite a 'venturi' I don't believe) that would run below the oil cooler. It would look similar to the Volvo on the last page. My thought was to create a lower pressure area coming out right below the oil cooler, which I could seal off and draw additional air off the oil cooler, while splitting the air between the oil cooler and radiator. I don't know if I want to add the weight, and also don't know if I will have and extra 1/2" below the plank without breaching the rules. I suppose I could use some thinner material but then I'd have to spend more money!!!

 

If you can angle the splitter rear end up maybe 7 degrees to act as a bit of a diffuser and it'll get you more front end grip. You can also go back to the front axle line IIRC.

Personally I'd rather have 1/8"-1/4" and just carry a spare or two in case of an incident.

 

Care to elaborate on that wooden F1 car comment?


And I don't know about adding 26lbs to the front of the car no matter how strong it is. You could have used thin steel and probably came out the same or less. Damn with that.

 

Its know as the "legality plank" or something like that. It is put on the bottom of the car to keep them from running too low. It too much of it is worn off, they are disqualified. If you watched the race at Indy you could see where it was scraping on the banking.

 

When i first saw the pics i thought it was a mold for a splitter, i think i will try that. Neat idea, but like mentioned before i'm not to keen in the idea of a large sturdy piece of plywood waging war on my undercarriage when something goes wrong.
A+ for creativity and do-it-yourself-ness though

 

SCCA racers have been doing that for many years.

 

you should try making one out of aluminum sheets. it might be lighter, just as strong and won't crack and send splinters all over the place.

A for ingenuity
A for the time and quality
C for the use of wood