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Old 12-16-2011, 12:19 PM   #1 (permalink)
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Questions about an air dam and belly pan

Finally, the semester at my school is over, and now I can focus on aero mods.

As I have been learning about various mods, I decided that I wanted to do an almost full belly pan for my car (covering everything but the underside of the engine and the exhaust). Initially, I also had plans for an airdam. I recently realized though that most people choose one or the other. I can understand why someone who has an air dam might not want to put a belly pan under their car since most of the air is being deflected away from the underside. Alternatively, if your car has a clean underside I understand why you wouldn't want to increase the frontal area just a bit. Seeing as there will still be some aerodynamically dirty parts exposed when the belly pan doesn't cover the entire underside of the car, might it still be advantageous to have an air dam. I'm thinking that after the belly pan, the air dam might not provide much of a benefit.

I do have one thought though. What if I were to put a belly pan on like I said, but didn't make the air dam go down as far as it would usually go? Maybe the air dam could work as a lower grill block and make the front end of my car smooth and help the flowing air attach to the belly pan. Please provide your thoughts.

Here's a picture of the front of my car:


I can provide pictures of the underside of my car as well. I just have to take the pictures.


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Old 12-17-2011, 02:09 PM   #2 (permalink)
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dam/pan

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aveomiler View Post
Finally, the semester at my school is over, and now I can focus on aero mods.

As I have been learning about various mods, I decided that I wanted to do an almost full belly pan for my car (covering everything but the underside of the engine and the exhaust). Initially, I also had plans for an airdam. I recently realized though that most people choose one or the other. I can understand why someone who has an air dam might not want to put a belly pan under their car since most of the air is being deflected away from the underside. Alternatively, if your car has a clean underside I understand why you wouldn't want to increase the frontal area just a bit. Seeing as there will still be some aerodynamically dirty parts exposed when the belly pan doesn't cover the entire underside of the car, might it still be advantageous to have an air dam. I'm thinking that after the belly pan, the air dam might not provide much of a benefit.

I do have one thought though. What if I were to put a belly pan on like I said, but didn't make the air dam go down as far as it would usually go? Maybe the air dam could work as a lower grill block and make the front end of my car smooth and help the flowing air attach to the belly pan. Please provide your thoughts.

Here's a picture of the front of my car:


I can provide pictures of the underside of my car as well. I just have to take the pictures.
My limited experience so far has demonstrated that,even with a full bellypan,you'll still want as deep a front airdam as you can tolerate.The air should be shunted around to the sides rather than go towards the underside.


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