Does a splitter work if the car is not lowered?Is a corvette considered a flat bottom car?Will a diffuser work if the car is not lowered? At what speed do they become an aero package?
Bill

 

Read, and understand that Katechs best numbers are only around 25lbs of down force on the front, and around 50lbs on the rear at 120mps. This will give you the idea of how much lift the corvette has at speed.

http://www.katechengines.com/street_...a%20report.pdf


As for your question, the splitter moves air around the front of the car and down the sides (less air under the car). The lower the splitter, the less air going under it.

As for no air under the car, bad, bad thing since the back end of the C6 is just a drag chute in design, and some of the air going under the car, help to fill in the vacuum void of the back end by coming back up from underneath (read front end cuts through the wind fine, but since the back end is flat, this causes a pressure wave from the rear of the air stream, back to the front of the air stream to cause more air resistance).



On the front of front wheel wells of the z06 and ZR-1, there is a plate that helps to push air outward on the front of the wheel wells at the end of the splitter, instead of back inward under the car. With side skirts, less air sucked back under as well.

Now the bad news, you really want a front splitter brace when you are adding a splitter. They are made for the GS, Z06 and ZR-1 front nose, but have yet to find one for a base model car. Without the brace at speeds, the amount that the splitter being pulled down on the bottom of the front noise piece, it will elongate the bottom of the bumper downward with the splitter (splitter will be lower without lower the car, right up to the point that is starts dragging on the ground and destroys itself).

http://www.southerncarparts.com/corv...ce-p-4040.html

 

I was surprised by the amount of lift in a base setup! The lift is that mostly the front or engine compartment? opening up the side vents will that help relieve pressure under the hood?

 

Watch this, and remember if you are flowing more air out the side vents, then you are breaking up the stream of air down the sides of the car instead. Also note the huge vacuum void at tail of the car that the air is not filling in cleanly on exit, which cause a pressure wave back up to the front.
Note, here, lower existing ducts in the back lower half of the car would not only increase the down force, but fill in the rear vacumn area to make the car go faster (all while not having to add a larger spoiler to create down force.


So back to your question, want you want is the air going into the engine bay to flow upwards out of the engine bay at the back of the hood to tie into the air stream going over the windshield to create more down force there instead.






Blunty, GM built the car with form over function/MPG in mind, not getting the car to stick at speeds instead. Hence American muscle car thinking of high MPG with lift, higher high top end speeds due to lift, and not getting the car to stick hard to the ground at those high speeds instead).

The trick, try to come up with a Aero package that will get in the hundreds of LBS of down force front and back to get the car to stick better at speeds, while at the same time, not cause so much added wind resistance by air damming that it going to punish the car to badly in top end speeds. So its a mater of flowing air cleanly over the car to enter and exit cleanly, while at the same time, flowing the air to create down force, instead of just blocking its clean flow to create resistances instead (vacuum voids, like the rear end of the car, that could easily be solve with a few ducts to pull the air moving under the car to fill in the rear vacuum void area instead).

 

So this is why at 120mph the car feels like it could become a handful with a crosswind, dip in road or over a hill. Short of a wide body kit or moving into a GS or z06 there is no fix for a base car or z51 pkg? A diffuser seems the only aero upgrade that would benefit both ends of a base pkg/z51.
Bill

 

Yes on your question, and keep in mind that Katech numbers are for a Wide body ZO6.

So again, even with Katech's best splitter, side skirts and back spoiler on a Z06, your only ending up with around 25lbs of down force on the front, 50lbs of down force on the rear at 120mph.

So at best with the above on a Vet, your just fighting to get the car to not have lift, on even the Z06/ZR-1.


FYI, the Enzo makes 1709 lbs of downforce @ 186 mph.

 

Thank you very much Dano. This has been very enlightening. I believe I will keep a stock configuration and be more aware of road conditions, speed,and all those other variables I encounter.

 

I don't know where you're getting those numbers. It's way more downforce than that.

 

Should I just save up for a GS? Will have to check out Katech for base model aero upgrade!
Bill

 

Even the stock ZR-1 has lift at speeds, but would love to see the values on a Base model with Aero available upgrades to it.

As for the numbers, since Katach does not publish their down force numbers, or even starting point numbers that they are basing their gains off*, and depending on published starting number data sources, the best numbers from their gain percentages listed (the only numbers they do give), ends up at around 50lbs front, 75lbs rear at 120mph, and a far cry from MDF values where again, you end up with close to half a ton on the Enzo around the same tested speeds.

* Reminds me of the tire commercials where a manufacturer states the their tire rolls 56% better. The problem, they don't state what it rolls better against, so it could be that the tire rolls 56% better than a square block of wood.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ock-z06-2.html

 

ttt