Underbody panels

**JoshuaGrooms83** · 12-11-2010, 03:44 PM

Its amazing how much one mod (and desire) can affect the whole car. Im trying to get my car ready for RR and was wondering if anyone has ever added any kind of belly pans or panels to smooth out the undercarrage so as to make the car "stick" even more at high speeds. This is a DD so keep the recomendations around that please. No "gut it and 12 point it" speeches please lol CArs lowered and i do plan on getting some lind of front splitter or lip and eventually a rear diffuser (6LE style)
ANy pics would be cool

**Z28_Driver** · 12-13-2010, 07:29 AM

I would like to see this too. Never saw a belly pan on a 4th gen.

**MAXX2** · 01-10-2011, 03:48 PM

Originally Posted by Z28_Driver

I would like to see this too. Never saw a belly pan on a 4th gen.

Would a belly pan really help in your racing or not??? They are not expensive if you do the work yourself, or one can spend some serious $$$s having one built like on the Blowfish Land Speed Racing race car, or for that matter, the Lemans type of cars, and other racing series race cars.

We have a picture of the bottom of Blowfish, just don't know how to post it in this message board.

Richard (aka MAXX) and Judy

**JoshuaGrooms83** · 01-10-2011, 11:02 PM

Originally Posted by MAXX2

Would a belly pan really help in your racing or not??? They are not expensive if you do the work yourself, or one can spend some serious $$$s having one built like on the Blowfish Land Speed Racing race car, or for that matter, the Lemans type of cars, and other racing series race cars.

We have a picture of the bottom of Blowfish, just don't know how to post it in this message board.

Richard (aka MAXX) and Judy

TO post pics you need a photobucket account. THen download pics to Photobucket then copy and paste the "directlink" URL into the "insert Pics" button. Its the button that has a mountain and some kind of ball above it.
Im willin gto do this myself, just trying to get an idea of where to start. The first thing im gonna work on is making a cover plate for an STS system to cover up the Turbo and smoothe out the rear inot the bump so that the rear bumper doesnt act like a parachute at high speeds lol

**MAXX2** · 01-11-2011, 04:53 AM

Originally Posted by JoshuaGrooms83

TO post pics you need a photobucket account. THen download pics to Photobucket then copy and paste the "directlink" URL into the "insert Pics" button. Its the button that has a mountain and some kind of ball above it.
Im willin gto do this myself, just trying to get an idea of where to start. The first thing im gonna work on is making a cover plate for an STS system to cover up the Turbo and smoothe out the rear inot the bump so that the rear bumper doesnt act like a parachute at high speeds lol

If you could email us (Maybe it's in our profile?), we could send you the pics. We also have a Belly Pan on our LSR Nascar Ford T-bird that runs from the front of the car to the rear of the motor, and this is being extended to the firewall to completely enclose the engine bay from any 'Air' entering from underneath. The M2 team manager is also designing front inner fenderwells to keep even more air from entering the engine bay. Note that the car set the AA/GCT record of 205.886 at the June 2010 ECTA Maxton Mile event in NC.

NOTE: You can go to our website shown in our profile, and fill out the contact info to reach us. We do have a photobucket account, but prefer that we just email the pics to you.

Richard (aka MAXX) and Judy

**SIK02SS** · 01-12-2011, 07:17 AM

What kind of road racing are you planning on doing without a cage? Or do you have a cage...?

A belly pan is also not as simple as creating a smooth surface under the car. Look at real racecars with one or even production cars with them (Ford GT, F360, F430). They all have channels (that were engineered) into it that give the air set places to go. Without this a belly pan can theoretically do more harm than good.

**MAXX2** · 01-12-2011, 07:50 AM

Originally Posted by SIK02SS

What kind of road racing are you planning on doing without a cage? Or do you have a cage...?

A belly pan is also not as simple as creating a smooth surface under the car. Look at real racecars with one or even production cars with them (Ford GT, F360, F430). They all have channels (that were engineered) into it that give the air set places to go. Without this a belly pan can theoretically do more harm than good.

You are absolutely 100 percent correct.

The current Belly Pan as built was probably worth 2-3 MPH on the 'Bad Bird' Record Run. But, as the car reached near 200, the air going between the back of the belly pan and the firewall caused the car to actually scrape the ground. The car made a couple of runs after that, but the promoters made the team take the pan off after it hit the surface.

So, it was back to the drawing board, but the M2 Team Manager/Crew Chief/Co-Driver Steve Hodge (aka Hodgeman) used a program called Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), and this gave them the specs to use to extend the pan just past the firewall. If you do this wrong on these cars, they will become airborne, which is something you do not want.

Hope this helps a bit, and not sure how you would design your belly pan for Road Race specs.

Richard (aka MAXX) and Judy

**SIK02SS** · 01-12-2011, 08:58 AM

Originally Posted by MAXX2

You are absolutely 100 percent correct.

The current Belly Pan as built was probably worth 2-3 MPH on the 'Bad Bird' Record Run. But, as the car reached near 200, the air going between the back of the belly pan and the firewall caused the car to actually scrape the ground. The car made a couple of runs after that, but the promoters made the team take the pan off after it hit the surface.

So, it was back to the drawing board, but the M2 Team Manager/Crew Chief/Co-Driver Steve Hodge (aka Hodgeman) used a program called Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), and this gave them the specs to use to extend the pan just past the firewall. If you do this wrong on these cars, they will become airborne, which is something you do not want.

Hope this helps a bit, and not sure how you would design your belly pan for Road Race specs.

Richard (aka MAXX) and Judy

And unless you are a CFD engineer, getting that done is very expensive!

If you're just planning on doing track days (HPDE type events), this is totally over kill and unnecessary..

**JoshuaGrooms83** · 01-12-2011, 11:17 AM

I dont plan on doing the WHOLE car but i want to smooth out parts of the car that can benefit from this. Like the rear of the car that could use some "air channeling". I not too sure about camaros but Firebirds have lower rear bumpers and the part that goes under the car has a space in it that almost acts as a scoop. A diffuser can help but the air coming to it needs a route to get there. Plus i plan on getting an STS turbo kit and a pan would also act as a shield to keep the turbo and some of the rear pipes protected from the elements on my daily driver during ocassional track day visits and normal driving which can be worse then track days at times lol. To keep the car on the ground, a front lip/spoiler, rear spoiler (ta's are bigger), and a rear diffuser to help it all out shoul;d keep my car on the ground most of the time lol i dont plan on any 200mph runs anytime soon. Would be nice but id rather have my stock TA hood on for somthing like that to make it smoother. could do it on the Autobahn if i had the tranny for it. Dont think my little 4l60E is gonna see that ever.

**SIK02SS** · 01-12-2011, 11:58 AM

If you're putting an STS kit in, I wouldn't recommend covering anything..That rear mount turbo will generate A LOT of heat. All that heat has to go somewhere, and with plastic bumpers, rubber/plastic brakes lines, fuel lines, electrical wires, etc all back there, something is bound to melt with all the turbo heat. A heat blanket on the turbo could help, but nothing is 100%.

Just my .02

**JoshuaGrooms83** · 01-12-2011, 01:15 PM

Originally Posted by SIK02SS

If you're putting an STS kit in, I wouldn't recommend covering anything..That rear mount turbo will generate A LOT of heat. All that heat has to go somewhere, and with plastic bumpers, rubber/plastic brakes lines, fuel lines, electrical wires, etc all back there, something is bound to melt with all the turbo heat. A heat blanket on the turbo could help, but nothing is 100%.

Just my .02

From what i heard form guys that own them, the rear turbo setups dont get that hot. I dont know yet so i cant say but I would guess the panel could have some vents made into it.

**SIK02SS** · 01-12-2011, 02:20 PM

Originally Posted by JoshuaGrooms83

From what i heard form guys that own them, the rear turbo setups dont get that hot. I dont know yet so i cant say but I would guess the panel could have some vents made into it.

True, vents can be done. To do it right makes it a bit tougher though for doing this at home unless you have the tools.

**Demon_Z28** · 01-12-2011, 04:22 PM

Originally Posted by SIK02SS

If you're putting an STS kit in, I wouldn't recommend covering anything..That rear mount turbo will generate A LOT of heat. All that heat has to go somewhere, and with plastic bumpers, rubber/plastic brakes lines, fuel lines, electrical wires, etc all back there, something is bound to melt with all the turbo heat. A heat blanket on the turbo could help, but nothing is 100%.

Just my .02

Uhh I heard the issue is that there isn't enough heat from the exhaust to spool the turbo efficiently. Header wrap from the headers all the way back to the turbo really help with the spool. I know this because my friend has a Firehawk with a 80mm BorgWarner Custom rear mount turbo set up. No STS parts are on his car.