[DeTomaso] Grp 4 air dam

[mark skwarek]

I'm planning on going to Daytona in Nov. and want to be ready at the higher speeds. I did not have any problems last year at 155mph but with a new motor comming, I'm hoping to do better. I just don't want any surprises. 
 
I was planning on using rivenuts for the installation. 
 
I appreciate all the info.
Thanks,
Mark

--- On Mon, 9/21/09, asajay at asajay.com <asajay at asajay.com> wrote:


From: asajay at asajay.com <asajay at asajay.com>
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso]   Grp 4 air dam
To: detomaso at realbig.com
Date: Monday, September 21, 2009, 4:34 PM


There is another option.

Our favorite Race Dog, Dennis, uses rivnuts on the front of the car to  
temporarily mount the front air dam.  The car is driven normally  
without the dam, but when doing an ORR event, the dam goes on with  
about eight bolts.  Then he also bolts on some flexible skirts just  
under the door rockers.  This has worked exceptionally well for him to  
maintain high speed stability.  When mounted, the air dam sits very  
close to the ground, only a couple inches if I recall but it's been a  
while since I looked at it myself.

Asa Jay

Quoting JDeRyke at aol.com:

>
>  fresnofinches at aol.com writes:
>> Despite what I was told by one vendor during his repairs to 2511 aftermy
>> off-road-adventure, there IS more than one way to install thisspoiler. The
>> right way, and the wrong way.   For me the right way is one that lets me
>> drive around town without tearing it apart on a weekly basis. The vendor had
>> installed it with a MUCH greater angle, and it scraped on just about every
>> driveway in town, including his shop's.
>>
> To expand on Larry's nice description above, some people who want to push
> more air away from the front end in high speed events but cannot afford to
> drive the car that way every day due to constant damage, do several things:
>
> 1)- I've seen stiff rubber strips bolted/rivited to the bottom of a
> moderate-angle spoiler to extend it downward without being rigid and  
>  incurring
> constant road-damage. The rubber should be stiff enough so that high  
>  speed air
> doesn't fold it back. Can't tell you how stiff it should be; too weak and it
> folds under. Too stiff and you'll still crack the main spoiler on the
> ground, especially if you're also braking hard in a turn. Far   
> stiffer springs on
> aftermarket coil-overs might be needed to help combat nose-dive.
>
> 2)- Hall used to sell a hydraulic cylinder that looked like a screen door
> closer hooked to the frame and the front a-arms and driven by an on-board
> compressor. This when activated raised the whole front some 2-1/2" so as to
> allow one to use public streets with low-mounted air dams. The   
> system may still
> be available; heavy,complicated and slow-reacting but they did work.
>
> 3)- I once had a low-,ounted wrap-around air dam on a non-Pantera autocross
> car. After cracking it three times   on city streets, I fabricated a new
> center section of 050" sheet aluminum, retaining the stock complex ends of
> fiberglas. The aluminum central dam worked well and could be straightened
> (weekly!) to look more-or-less OK with pliers and a mallet.   
> Rattle-can touch ups
> were needed too. The whole rig eventually got to be more trouble than it was
> worth and removed and I sold it to someone more patient than I.
>
> Final thoughts: one Pantera owner ran such an airdam on his street car and
> found that on-track, it pushed so much air aside, he burned off a set of
> brake pads in 1.0 event due to inadequate cooling air to the brakes. This had
> not happened before. He wound up ducting air hoses to the rotors- more
> complication. Personally, I think low-hanging front spoilers are too  
>  much trouble
> on the street for the benefits one gets on-track. All the foregoing assumes
> you will actually drive the car on the street as well as at competition
> events. For show cars, anything's possible at 8-10 mph. Good luck- J Deryke
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