I'm interested in improving the aero on my car for the road course, but without spending the coin for Voltex, Varis, carbon fiber, etc.

Does anyone know of more reasonably priced, but effective alternatives for wings, air dams, splitters, etc.?

Has anyone tried the APR aluminum rear wings?

Also, can anyone comment on whether they've found the APR splitter to be effective at increasing grip up front?

Thanks!
RichJ

 

The APR front splitter will make approx. 1/2 the downforce of the "3-D" splitters on the market, such as Voltex and DHP. You only get the high pressure zone on top of the front lip of the splitter pushing down.

With the other splitters they have features built into the underside that creates a venturi effect, or low pressure zone, which "sucks" the car down to the ground.

Especially if you can find one used, for the price the APR is not a bad piece. There is also a company that makes an aluminum front splitter for a decent price.

http://www.autovationparts.com/store...shilancer.html

Many autocross guys run the aluminum APR wings. . . they are fairly popular. PM "SS RX7 r2" - he has some experience with setting them up and can get you more information on them . . .

 

APR makes great products and their pricing is extremely fair

 

So with these adjustable ones, how exactly do you "tune" them?

 

I don't know about their aero products, but I have autovation pedals, they are great! good company,

 

You tune them in by adjusting them to a setting that yields you the fastest lap time

 

sealing up the rear bumper helps a bunch... do that first.

 

My ARP rear diffuser and wing were something like 800 together. I think the wing was the GTC-300? I'm just guessing at the model. Definately made a noticable difference at high speed corners. I'm able to comfortably carry 10mph more through ~100mph turns on the same tires. I'm sure there's more in them as well. When doing the diffuser I also punched 3 holes in the bumper behind the plate to prevent parachuting. I put those desk grommets in the holes (the onese your wires come up through) Works well.

I also need to find a good cheap fix for the front underpanel/splitter deal.

 

*thwaps phil* lol, ya. But the earlier post talked about the theory of the suction and so forth. So from a design perspective, and on a budget like the OP said, what's everyone doing with them and what's yielded the best results. It's like any other mod....

 

Uh, auto-x is usually low speed so if you are looking for more grip look in places other than aero. Aero is only as effective as the air flowing over it. Below 60mph aero isnt really doing much, below 100 it is helping but not as much as you might think. Over 60 is where it helps.

 

Good point

 

Show me data that says that "over 60" is the magic cut off point . . .

You can DEFINITELY feel a difference in grip, even at 40mph, with a car with properly designed aero vs. a car with none . . .

BTW, this thread is about someone looking for AERO mods . . . from the first post "I'm interested in improving the aero on my car for the road course"

My "autocross" car -

 

I picked up a used APR 300 wing. From the limited time I've had it, I would say it helped on the road course. Since I didn't see a loss of high speed on the straight an evo might take more down force/ angle than even that wing has..

I believe I saw a noticeable loss of gas mileage on the road home(at near max angle). kind of hard to account for everything, from one days experience.

 

When I fix this problem with my car I'll be doing lots of testing on this topic. Between the Traqmate GPS datalogger and Evoscan I should be able to put some real numbers behind this stuff.



I'm trying to find the sweet spot on parts that don't cost tons and deliver where it matters - grip and lap times. I just need a car with a motor again, and lots of testing time.

For the money the APR splitter is hard to beat for adding front grip. It's a good place to start. You can always add material (aluminum) to extend it out farther and increase front downforce. That's what I plan on doing. You just need to get it tied into the frame and not just the bumper.

A simple gurney flap on the rear wing element is a tried and true way to increase rear downforce. It's not major, but it is a sure way to get more rear grip.

I'm also screwing with rear bumper vents and the whole flat bottom, and looking at building a rear diffuser. I'll try and see if each part makes an impact, but I think the sum of the parts is where the real benefit is. Evo's naturally create lift at speed, so all the aero we throw at them is just hoping to get around neutral to slight downforce. Without adding major work like Evolutionary the effects of anything are minor under 100 mph. You need massive surface area to make a difference under 60-100 mph.

 

Thanks for all the great responses. Please keep them coming.

EVOlutionary, your car is the bomb. If I only autocrossed, I'd be more up for spending money for nice parts like that, but I'm afraid that I'd break them in time on the track.