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Originally Posted by maxmistretta
Hello everyone,I'm new here and would like to thank you for having me.I'm a 45 year old A.S.E. master certified tech with many hours of G.M. training. I just got a 93 civic dx and plan on "playing" with it. After seeing all the ( I'm sorry) ugly fender skirts It seems to me air could be ducted out of the fenders, through the rear bumper and out the sides of the front fenders late 70's trans am style. Has anyone tried anything like this and if so how does it work?
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The present wisdom is to let all the air "pool" above the lowest suspension components,trapped in by the perimeter of the body.The air flowing below will sort of ricochet off this stagnant air.
By opening up the fenders or bumper you create a torture chamber for the air.Subaru published an SAE paper on R&D of a sport coupe they built and it shows a definite benefit of closing off the rear and actually dropping a valance panel down from the bumper to trap even more air until it reaches the "diffuser angle,then they provide a smooth under-belly panel to guide the flow.
GM wind tunnel R&D of the Trans Am Firebird revealed that the aft wheelhouse ducts on the front fenders INCREASED drag.They remained as a styling cue,but actually degraded the cars performance.