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Originally Posted by Isoldmysaturn:(
you might want to make standoffs for the belly pan so you can keep it flatter and cover more of the bottom, this would make a huge difference in stability, noise, and most likely in economy. splitters/front mount air dams (see chevy volt and traverse for OEM examples that work well) will compliment this for sure.
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I made standoff brackets for the driver's side bellypan, though I need to readjust the height on 1 point so it holds the pan flat. I recall reading somewhere that you really need to start the pan from the front nose back, which might be why my existing 1/4 pan seems to have a negative effect on FE. The air under the nose and engine is utter chaos, and there's only the factory 2" front lip under the bumper. I can intuitively see how having an axle-to-axle bellypan under only the driver's side could make the drag worse than without anything at all. It would create a high pressure area in the front, and low pressure behind it, as the pan forces air to the passenger side and then sucks it back to the driver's side as it tries to exit the back. This might be one of those "all or nothing" mods, instead of trying to do it piecemeal like I've been doing on everything else.
That reminds me, when I was building the driver's side skirts my worst (almost ever) tank of gas was when I had the front wheel done, but hadn't yet built from the driver's door back. It looked a lot like a DTM car, but without the airflow vented out of the engine compartment. The drag was noticeably worse on the highway, and drastically improved when I added on the rest of the skirt. I can see how the partial piece of bellypan could do the same thing.
I'll have to check out the Traverse, it's not one that I've looked at. There's a Volt here at work, so I get a chance to look at it in detail every once in a while.