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made some industrial velcro brackets to hold them on when Im at the track they work great, and look factory. the dimensions of the wheel well from the c7 to the c8 is the same.
Why would you want to? Probably the most unsightly thing about the widebody C7.
Yep, thought the front spats on my 2017 Grand Sport looked foolish!
Spats were fine for my 1974 CJ5 V8 Jeep Renegade BUT not a Corvette! Was living in a small town on Lake Erie and Jeep was great for off-roading year round. It was my winter ride as my 260Z stayed parked. Way to much salt on the roads until the rains washed it all away by May!
I’ll pass on the spats for the c8 myself. I guess now we know why corvette design sets the offset on their wheels the way they do while brands such as Porsche tend to create a wider more flush look. Being inset probably cuts down on stone kickups ?
I’ll pass on the spats for the c8 myself. I guess now we know why corvette design sets the offset on their wheels the way they do while brands such as Porsche tend to create a wider more flush look. Being inset probably cuts down on stone kickups ?
Good friend when I lived in NE Ohio. Frequent Off-Road passenger.
In a AsK Tadge Post, he said this about Spats. QUESTION: Can you please tell us why you are not molding the fenders to eliminate the need for spats, protective film, and splash guards?
Tadge answered: All Corvette exterior features and surface shapes are designed for maximum performance and great aesthetics. Around the front wheel openings, both the C6 (Z06, GS and ZR1) and C7 (GS and Z06) feature what you are calling spats arcing down the forward edge. These features create high pressure on the front/top and low pressure on the back/underside resulting in down force and evacuation of hot air from the wheel opening. The aerodynamic studies for both C6 and C7 independently proved their value. To work, they need to be a very specific shape - specifically a sharp break in the surface where the spat meets the fender. I have been asked many times why we couldn't just form that shape from the front fender so it would be all one painted piece instead of looking "tacked on". We looked at that and decided it looked pretty bad when painted bright colors. Your eye is immediately drawn to that feature and it does not look integrated or graceful. Naturally the question is, "If it is so important, why don't we see it on the C7.R race car?" The reason is that the race car sits so low to the ground it can take advantage of even more efficient aerodynamic features such as an "underwing" that sits beneath the front splitter. "Ok, then why don't we see it on other street cars?". Well, actually you do. There are several, typically very serious performance cars that have similar features such as the Porsche GT3RS.
On the question of why we don't pull the fender behind the tire outboard to completely cover the front tire, there are several reasons for that. The main reason is aerodynamic drag. The air flowing by the side of the car wants to re-attach to the smooth part of the body rearward of the wheel opening. The lowest drag cars in the world actually have a very large radius on the body surface making up the transition from the wheel opening to the body side. Bringing the corner of the bottom of the fender out flush with the outside of the tire creates a stagnation point for the air which generates high pressure on a forward facing surface - drag. That same forward facing surface also makes a perfect target for stones coming off the tire... It gets hammered. So most companies choose to bring that fender corner inward a bit and put some radius on it. Others add what looks like a small mud flap.
Stone throw mitigation is actually an interesting science. With slow motion video we know that many stones don't take the obvious path straight off the tire and into the body side. Some bounce between the underside of the car and the roadway more than once before contacting a part of the car where you might notice the damage. I mention this because the premise of this question is that we can solve the stone throw problem with fender shape. It is true we can help it at the cost of drag, but can't solve it completely.
The last point I would make is that the Corvette is a relatively compact car with massively over-sized tires. Like many sports cars around the world, the architecture and aesthetic choices give the car a very aggressive look. For decades the "coke bottle" shape has been a Corvette hallmark. We could help stone throw by making a slab-sided car with the body skin pushed out to the outside face of the tires, but it would look like a refrigerator on wheels. Instead we typically pull the body skin in as tautly as we can over the mechanicals giving it the lean, muscular shape most people really like.
PS: Made me fell better about my C7 Grand Sport Spats knowing there was a reason- BUT didn't look better!
So I know there’s some who will probably hate it, but I really liked the spats on my c7, so bought some C7 ones and put them on the c8….. what do you think
before and after pic
Yep, thought the front spats on my 2017 Grand Sport looked foolish!
Spats were fine for my 1974 CJ5 V8 Jeep Renegade BUT not a Corvette! Was living in a small town on Lake Erie and Jeep was great for off-roading year round. It was my winter ride as my 260Z stayed parked. Way to much salt on the roads until the rains washed it all away by May!
They were not for looks, and you know it. If you thought they looked foolish, I suppose you took them off.
insane
