Skid Plates, Low Cars, Aquaplaning, Pride & Prejudice

[Matej]

Dear 240SX enthusiasts,
Can a skid plate and/or a splitter make a lowered vehicle more susceptible to hydroplaning in wet conditions?
Y/N?

It seems that a big flat panel located a couple of centimeters above ground could prove to be quite the buoyant nuisance when youthfully motoring through puddles, lakes, marshes, etc.
This is a matter of grave importance that has been squatting on the back of mind, as some sort of a squatting thing would.
Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?

[thefro526]

I know what you're trying to get at here, and yes, a giant wooden splitter is definitely going to cause your front end to 'lift' if you're going through any significant amount of water, imagine a flat fronted/flat bottom boat going through water. A skid plate should have less of/no effect since it's much smaller, and usually higher up - not to mention that it normally has a handful of holes in it.

With that being said, I really don't see it as being an issue, unless you've got some monster splitter that's like 1/2" off the ground. I don't see why anyone would be driving through any significant amount of water with any sort of speed, it's going to be hard to retain control no matter what.

[PoorMans180SX]

Originally Posted by Matej

Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?

Hahah, this made me grin.


Anyway, what he said^. Unless your car is 4x4 you're not going to want to drive through anything remotely deep (think 2") or it'll go badly for your aero.

You have insulted me in every possible way and can now have nothing further to say. I must ask you to leave immediately.

[S14DB]

Aquaplaning - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[bigs]

Oh, my goodness. Everybody behave naturally.

Originally Posted by PoorMans180SX

Unless your car is 4x4 you're not going to want to drive through anything remotely deep (think 2") or it'll go badly for your aero.

Yes. A thousand times yes.

[MrMigs]

All you need to do is build rudders into your skid plate. Boating solved.


wait..

[kOOpA]

[mechanicalmoron]

I'd think the splitter might be pulled violently downwards, and rip off or damage stuff.

If it's low enough, you could hydroplane on a skidplate I'm sure, or it could help... it won't lift the whole car or anything, but it could take some weight off the tires, which will already have bad traction.

Get a splitter and skidplate and go try. For science.

[Matej]

This is only an attempt to ascertain if a skid plate and possibly a splitter would be the right choices for me to protect the oil pan and aero or if I would be better off just raising the engine, as 62% of the driving I do is during torrential downpours.
Even though sixty-two percent of nothing is nothing.

[kevinphan]

The splitter will help make your bumper more rigid and keep it in its place in the event you do hit a big puddle. One downfall is that you get a rooster tail from the splitter onto the hood and windshield(only if the splitter sticks past the lip of bumper) when you drive through little puddles. Front end does lift if you hit a big enough puddle with speed but nothing to lose sleep over.




Sits about an inch or less off the ground. Anyone with a low car should look into a splitter. It'll make your bumper almost invincible.

[racepar1]

Don't drive lile a retard and you won't have to worry about hydroplaning...

...pretty damn simple!!!





EDIT: For those of you with plywood splitters:

YOU SUCK!!!! Go make a REAL splitter that won't splinter into a bazillion pieces if you hit it with a fucking pebble... You can make your own carbon fiber or fiberglass one at home, it's not THAT hard. You can make one out of alumalite, which is two thin sheets of aluminum with a honeycomb bonded in-between. Plywood is straight-up backwoods redneck ghetto BS...

[zenkiset]

^^ this

I normally don't agree with people that are rude about things so I stay out of the zilvia drama, but I have to on this one lol. ive never quite understood the big ass plywood splitters.

[Sleepiedaze]

pieces of wood are for building houses and or awesome bomfires.....not for use on a car.

[crzsteveo]

he prob got it for free so who cares? lol. paint it black and say it isn't wood lmao.

you should install some sort of rudder in the rear so when your rear end kicks out, grab a handle and it drops the rudders and helps straighten your car out lol

[PoorMans180SX]

Originally Posted by racepar1

Don't drive lile a retard and you won't have to worry about hydroplaning...

...pretty damn simple!!!





EDIT: For those of you with plywood splitters:

YOU SUCK!!!! Go make a REAL splitter that won't splinter into a bazillion pieces if you hit it with a fucking pebble... You can make your own carbon fiber or fiberglass one at home, it's not THAT hard. You can make one out of alumalite, which is two thin sheets of aluminum with a honeycomb bonded in-between. Plywood is straight-up backwoods redneck ghetto BS...

Yes, I'll make a fiberglass splitter to protect my fiberglass bumper... Wait a minute.

These are for scraping and banging into things, why would I take the time to make a carbon fiber or alumalite one when it's main purpose is to scrape on the ground? The slightly better gas mileage and front end stability are just a bonus, hahahah. Any street-driven low car is going to hit something nasty eventually, I would hate to see my $150 carbon fiber splitter crack in half from something stupid like that.

For real though, I don't know why you guys are all up in arms about this, plywood works perfectly fine and is plenty durable.

[racepar1]

Originally Posted by PoorMans180SX

Yes, I'll make a fiberglass splitter to protect my fiberglass bumper... Wait a minute.

These are for scraping and banging into things, why would I take the time to make a carbon fiber or alumalite one when it's main purpose is to scrape on the ground? The slightly better gas mileage and front end stability are just a bonus, hahahah. Any street-driven low car is going to hit something nasty eventually, I would hate to see my $150 carbon fiber splitter crack in half from something stupid like that.

For real though, I don't know why you guys are all up in arms about this, plywood works perfectly fine and is plenty durable.

Actually the purpose of a splitter is to make DOWNFORCE. If you're not trying to make DOWNFORCE then why the splitter??? Just make an underpanel out of sheetmetal. Oh, that's right, I forgot. You can't hard-park like a badass with just an underpanel that nobody can see...

Splitters are NOT for street cars, PERIOD.

Plywood does NOT work "perfectly fine" either. Plywood is NOT strong enough to hold up to the forces that a PROPER splitter sees. I've got more than one buddy that made himself a super awesome plywood splitter only to have it rip itself straight off the car at high speed on the first trackday. It also wears EXTREMELY quickly. REAL race cars don't even use plywood for wear strips because it wears too fast. We use a produck called Jabrock, which is plywood impregnated with resin and compressed at high pressure. Yeah, that's not cheap either. Plywood is NOT strong enough, and it does NOT work fine. It is ghetto, cheap-ass, backwoods, redneck bullshit.

ONLY in the 240sx "community" is fashion valued so much higher than function. ONLY here is price valued so highly over pride.

[bigs]

no one mentioned or asked about anything you just said haha

[kevinphan]

Took my car off jumps, went dirt riding, hit a curb, highway juts at 80mph, 3 seperate drifting related crashes and the splitter is still in one piece along with my bumper.

It sits less than an inch, carbon fiber would have already worn away, my buddy has an alumalite splitter and that bends just driving around. 1/4" birch works fine, sorry your so butt hurt over wood. This splitter isnt made for aerodynamics its made for the simple fact that it keeps my bumper in one piece.

Drift car no care

[racepar1]

Originally Posted by kevinphan

Drift car no care

Drift cars are shitty, have fun with that...

[S14DB]

So, Skid Plates aren't for Skid Racing?

[racepar1]

Originally Posted by S14DB

So, Skid Plates aren't for Skid Racing?

HAHAHAHA!!!



"skid racing" I never get tired of that one!

Technically speaking what is often referred to as a "skid plate" isn't REALLY a skid plate, it's just an underpanel. Skid plates are thicker and are designed to bottom on the ground BEFORE any of the other body/chasis parts do. For example, if you were to bolt a 1/8" thick piece of aluminum to the bottom of the crossmember THAT is a skid plate. A SPLITTER is COMPLETELY different from either.

[S14DB]

Hot Jabroc shots...

[Matej]

Is that a speedboat?

[S14DB]

Porsche RS Spyder

[InsTanCeZ]

Won't Ganadors cause a significant increase in downforce, preventing any hydro-planing from occuring?

[zerodameaon]

If you want to protect your oil pan(important) more than aero(not really important) go buy a skid plate from one of the many companies who make them or make one like it. I have hit many puddles/low spots filled with water across the whole road and the car behaved exactly like it did without one. If you are going through water that deep you should not be going fast enough to hydroplane.

[Bushido]

+1 for plywood! lulz

[xoxide]

Originally Posted by racepar1

It is ghetto, cheap-ass, backwoods, redneck bullshit.

1- Ive never seen ghetto and redneck used in the same sentence before. Well done.

2- cheap-ass... right...

[Bushido]

hydro drift championship

[Matej]

That is exactly what I am afraid of happening. Thank you for finding a good example.