This weekend I was at the Mass Tuning event at Watkins Glen. There were three cars with Racebred splitters. All of them had their splitters mounted upside down.
What do I mean, aren’t splitters just flat? Sometimes and unfortunately yes, but even when they are flat, a splitter behaves essentially as a wing; there’s high pressure on top, and low pressure beneath, and the difference creates downforce. The low pressure undersides of wings and splitters produce much more downforce than the high pressure top sides, and so flow attachment beneath these components is critical.
Racebred only rounds the leading edge on one side of the splitter, and that’s there they put their logo. So people think that’s which way the splitter goes, logo side up. But it’s the underside of the splitter is what matters, so it’s the bottom of the leading edge that needs rounding!
It’s understandable that customers don’t know the fundamentals of aerodynamics; it’s not their job. Their job is to buy things. They trust manufacturers to have done the research and give them the products to go faster. So it’s a shame when aerodynamics manufacturers literally don’t know which side is up.
If you have a Racebred splitter, do yourself a favor and flip that embarrassment upside down.
Look, I don’t want to just pick on Racebred. Putting your logo on the wrong side of your splitter is endemic in the aerodynamics manufacturers community. Look around and you’ll see lots of manufacturers who round the wrong side of the splitter blade.
And when they do round it, it’s like just breaking the edge a little bit. The leading edge of the splitter should be as thick as possible, with as much radius as possible. On the underside of the splitter. This is one reason an Alumalite splitter screams “Amateur!” But I digress.
I also saw a lot of splitters with unused real estate on the outside edge. This does nothing, because it doesn’t change the direction of air. All you’re doing with this extra width is inviting contact with hard objects.
A small kicker here is an easy way to increase the pressure differential above and below the splitter. Or put a fence on it and reduce downstream losses. But do something with this extra width people!
These and other mistakes are in my Your Splitter Sucks article. If the manufacturers can’t get it right, at least you have the information to fix it.
Occam's Racer 