ive thought about making an aluminum undertray that goes back a couple feet. if that attached to the lip then back to some supports the lip would take much less of the hit. i actually have a cardboard cut out in my office i just need to take the time to draw it up in cad and cut it out.

 

first thing is to not hit cones, especially in the cold!!

Other than that, running the OEM undertray with ALL the attachment points in place, along with them being tied into the OEM fender liners, is a big help. There are MANY attachments points, but connecting everything together like this makes the bumper & lip much stronger in an impact. Also, its a PITA, but use the OEM type plastic fasteners instead of zip-ties to attach everything. Zip-ties are too strong and will actually rip the plastic on impact instead of the fastener just breaking.

In the off season I would always remove my bumper/lip and use 2-stage plastic epoxy to reattach any of the plastic pieces where the lip and bumper attached to each other that came loose.

 

Thought #1: Set up the car with more oversteer, loose in the rear... then at least you should NOT hit cones with the FRONT of the car.

Thought #2: agreed with AlwaysinBoost above... I bought a bag of 500 plastic fasteners, just like the OEM ones, but these were in bulk non-oem... dirt cheap, I'll say $10-12 if I remember right. (google is your friend). I ensured that all the undertray bits and pieces are there, perfect as they should be.

 

On that note: Does anyone have any recommendations for removing cone marks from the side of my car? Bug & tar remover kind of works, but it's not great.

 

Mine takes a beatin from ruts on course. It has black tape on one side and hello kitty tape on the other.

 

i used contact cleaner last time and it worked pretty well

 

The best stuff I have used is the 3m Aerosol Adhesive remover. Stuff even makes quick work of the nasty glue on the SPS stickers.

Takes cone marks off with one wipe.

 

Those SPS stickers are brutal.

 

I had a beatrush undertray which helped support the lip some, but still, enough cone hits and the under tray will bend (easily fixed with a hammer) and eventually half the mounts on the lip failed.

I replaced my lip with a bayson R Motorsport front lip and you can follow the rest of the task on my blog.

front lip install

the "fixed" front lip was actually quite strong, almost strong enough to support my weight.

 

white vinyl tape.

 

An SM legal front splitter does the trick for me. Cones are kept ~6" away at all times

 

for removing cone marks there is a product made by Mothers called R3 that works amazingly. I use this all the time to remove tire/rubber from my track car. I've tried a lot of different products, but the mothers stuff is the easiest to use by far.

 

I hate those SPS stickers. Just spend time last week cleaning off last year's adhesive with googone, WD40 and paint thinner.

 

why didn't you just leave them on from last year?

 

I did on the Evo, but ran out of room on the kart.