Fender flares, instead of wheel well covers?

[MetroMPG]

If the tires stick out farther than the bodywork ahead of them, I'd say go for it.

Tas: good find on the Vette spats. Here it is:

[tasdrouille]

One has to wonder why they didn't design the bumper cover just a tad wider in the first place. I mean, It's pretty much common sense that an exposed tire tread it going to cause more drag, the engineers must have known that. And I don't think widening the bumper by what, a inch to a inch and a half, would have changed the styling of the car much.

Must have been a case of "that's the way cars are designed". My jetta and elantra are like that too.

[MetroMPG]

Does the z06 share the same front bumper as the regular Vette? Does the regular Vette have the strakes? Maybe they have different width wheels/tires.

[tasdrouille]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Does the z06 share the same front bumper as the regular Vette? Does the regular Vett have the strakes? Maybe they have different width wheels/tires.

AFAIK, yes, no and no. The C6 Z06 aero improvements are bolt-ons. The strakes, the front splitter and the deck spoiler.

[Drive Stick]

Hmm, lightbulb turned on in my head. My father bought a set of chevy mudflaps for his HHR, they are hard plastic. He doesn't want them, and left them with me to dispose of or sell?

I may be able to trim that black plastic to the necessary size and fitment in order to push air around my front wheels, I will post an update once I figure out how to cut them properly, and attach them to the vehicle!

Cardboard will be a good template material i presume, better get to work!

[lunarhighway]

either this is some sloppy afterthought or there is a real difference between a wider bumper and this little flare.
maybe it was added to cure stability problems when the first prototype was already build. or maybe the tires are indeed different

than again a wider bumper vs this flare is the same as a higher trunklid vs a nascar style lipspoiler...

the wake will be different, and while in the case of the trunklid the higher lid might be the best choice for low drag aero on some cars, if you want the air to "jump" over the wheelwell, the most agressive approach might be the one that gets the job done best

[winkosmosis]

Originally Posted by lunarhighway

either this is some sloppy afterthought or there is a real difference between a wider bumper and this little flare.
maybe it was added to cure stability problems when the first prototype was already build. or maybe the tires are indeed different

than again a wider bumper vs this flare is the same as a higher trunklid vs a nascar style lipspoiler...

the wake will be different, and while in the case of the trunklid the higher lid might be the best choice for low drag aero on some cars, if you want the air to "jump" over the wheelwell, the most agressive approach might be the one that gets the job done best

Maybe they wanted the airflow to fan out and create a bubble over the wheelwell.

Or maybe it has to do with maintaining low pressure at the wheels to suck air out of the engine compartment. Otherwise air hitting the front of the tire would create a high pressure zone right where air needs to come out of the radiator

[rkcarguy]

In my opinion they roll the body inward at the bottom for one reason, so that it doesn't hit curbs before the tires do. Look at any other high speed/low drag designs, and they try to cover as much of the tire as possible as well as having more flat sides. Downside-in-attentive drivers will find themselves scraping the bottom 6" of the sides of their cars on the curb in a parallel parking situation if they get too close. As a alternative fix, the little plastic flare is flexible, small, and easily replaced.

[PaleMelanesian]

According to Tirerack, the standard corvette has 245 width front tires, while the Z06 has 275's. I'm guessing the extra flare is to cover the wider tires without changing the bodywork.

[lunarhighway]

this thread inspired me to add some dams.

i had already build some smooth fairings over my reverse engineered wheel dams, but they didn't cover much of the tire, so this morning i added some additional flaps in front of the tires... they could still be bigger, but for now i'm testing these.





the car felt a little different, but it's to soon to say if that was good or bad...