IROC Splitter height

[Mothy]

How close to the ground does a splitter have to be to become effective?

My IROC/RS3.0 style front dam has quite a gap to the road still - if I added a blade style splitter for track days (like I'v seen on lots of these) I'm wondering if it would be effective.

Or would I be better with a hard plastic extension to the dam like on the bottom of RUF style front?

Tim

[Walt Fricke]

Whatever you use, use something that is easy (and preferably inexpensive) to replace.

[Flieger]

A deep splitter with an air dam immediately above it can be any height above the ground and still be effective.

On real racecars, like GT2 ALMS cars, the ride height is critical to within literally a millimeter. The ride height/splitter height is most effective at only a little over a centimeter off the ground. This is because these cars use underbody aerodynamics such as diffusers so they need air to make them work but the splitter is there to split the air and cause more of it to go over the car, creating downforce. Too low stalls the diffuser. Too high lets air get under the car and lift it.

On your car, the splitter is just to take advantage of the high pressure above it caused by the air dam.

Splitters must be strong enough to take the aerodynamic load without deflecting. If you want 200 pounds of downforce, you must be able to stand on the splitter.