This weekend we drove our 2012 C6 from Camden, SC to Boca Raton, Florida. On the way back, while driving at 70MPH, I ran over a steel pipe that was laying in the inside lane of I-95. The front of the car drove over the pipe with no problem, but the pipe was kicked up by the cross member and slammed into the rear of the under carriage with enough force so that the entire car shook....

I pulled off the interstate and checked the car out as best I could. Seeing nothing wrong, we got back on the interstate and drove the rest of the way home to South Carolina. This took several hours. The car drove perfectly with no issues...

This morning I took the car over to my local Chevy dealer and had the car put up on the lift just to check it out and make sure all was okay.

Turns out, the car was fine. When I ran over the steel pipe, it was kicked up into one of the aerodynamic skid plates that pretty much "seal" the bottom of the C6. The force of the collision bent one skid plate slightly inward but there was no real damage to the car or any of the functional components.

The mechanic was as amazed as I and stated that any other car would have been severely damaged by the force of the impact. As stated, the "skid plates" are there for aerodynamics, not protection, but in this case, the plates clearly saved the day....

 

You got lucky!! Now stop running over stuff.

 

To the best of my knowledge there are no "skid plates" on a C6.

Do you mean the front crossmember? The radiator support? The tunnel plate? The rear crossmember?

 

Well, hasn't there been push by the tech gurus in this forum for an AWD Vette? The wait is over!!!

I'm heading' to Moab and hitting' Lions Back….

 

What is a skid plate?

 

OP, are you calling the flat panel welded to the frame at the spot where the frame spreads out to go around the passenger compartment a skid plate? See arrow in attached picture.

Bill

 

"skidplate" was my term. I know I do not own the first 4WD C6... I am just relaying the basic info the mechanic shared that there are coverings of some sort over a portion of the chassis that have something to do with aerodynamics. He did not point these out to me and I never looked at the bottom of the car when it was on the lift. Basically, I was just taking the guy's word for it....

Anyway, I'm just glad the car apparently suffered no damage...

 

Bill, thanks for the photo. Those must be the "plates" to which the mechanic was referring. Again, I did not see the spot the object struck, I was just repeating "basically" what I was told.

Thanks again for the pic. I think you nailed it...

 

It is called a skid plate

Chevrolet Genuine Factory OEM Part
Part Number: 20939828

Skid plate
Item #2 on image
MSRP
$308.60 Online Price
$192.57

 

Ah, vindication! Life is sweet! and to think that some of the folks around here made fun of my post! Thank you...

 

Some call it a skid plate, others call it a radiator support. If you break it your radiator will hang by the hoses so I guess the later is more appropriate.

 

BTW, the aforementioned C6 is now gone. Loved the car but it was time to move on. Purchased something a little newer...

 

Wrong! The part # you gave (20939828) is for the RADIATOR SUPPORT that GM calls a skid plate.

Nowhere near the parts in Bill Dearborns photo.

 

Or the LATTER....

 

Well I am in the process of replacing my damaged skid plate. So I did a search and when people started saying it isn't a skid plate I wanted to show that GM actually called it that.

 

What GM calls a skid plate is the radiator support.

The part(s) shown in Bill Dearborns photo (post number 6 in this thread) are NOT of a radiator support, they are of panels? plates? under the floorboards?