Discussion
Hi all
A mate of mine is rather good at making things out of fibre glass and we got chatting about making a flat floor for the Cerb.
Has anyone done one of these before? Are there anything that we should be aware of/avoid/include etc.
We are looking at making it in three pieces so that the front panel can be removed for servicing easy enough and as flat as possible. We are looking at making a front lip for the front piece as well.
Only issue I could come up with so far is cooling for the diff, we are looking at a simple ducting into it and out of it to take care of that, also the final part at the rear will include some kind of diffuser.
If the area under the engine was flat bottomed, is it likely to cause any heat issues? The actual temperature of the exhaust etc is not an issue because we can use high temp resin/heat shield etc to protect from the exhaust etc.
It could be a very worth while modification (albeit one that will be difficult to quantify without a wind tunnel!) and also relatively cost effective too.
Cheers!
Barry
A mate of mine is rather good at making things out of fibre glass and we got chatting about making a flat floor for the Cerb.
Has anyone done one of these before? Are there anything that we should be aware of/avoid/include etc.
We are looking at making it in three pieces so that the front panel can be removed for servicing easy enough and as flat as possible. We are looking at making a front lip for the front piece as well.
Only issue I could come up with so far is cooling for the diff, we are looking at a simple ducting into it and out of it to take care of that, also the final part at the rear will include some kind of diffuser.
If the area under the engine was flat bottomed, is it likely to cause any heat issues? The actual temperature of the exhaust etc is not an issue because we can use high temp resin/heat shield etc to protect from the exhaust etc.
It could be a very worth while modification (albeit one that will be difficult to quantify without a wind tunnel!) and also relatively cost effective too.
Cheers!
Barry
Not seen one on a Cerb but I've got one on the race car. Not run it yet though so can't tell you about heat issues, but on a road car you should be fine with heat. If you plan on tracking it a lot then I would look into cooling the diff and gearbox as they would both suffer if sat next to the exhaust with no airflow I should think. To make the floor worthwhile, I'm pretty sure you need the car set very low as well or the effect is minimised. Ask Andy Holden on here (teamholdenracing) he's got one on his race car and I expect will know all of the potential pitfalls!
If the heat can't get away underneath from the exhaust it will cause the interior to get even hotter and you will probably get more heat related issues with the gearbox and clutch.
Are you going to get the car low enough for the flat bottom to be of any use on the public road and still be able to clear speed humps/potholes. I can see the value on track but not the road IMO.
Are you going to get the car low enough for the flat bottom to be of any use on the public road and still be able to clear speed humps/potholes. I can see the value on track but not the road IMO.
Unlikely to be worthwhile on a road car in my opinion, unless you drop the ride height significantly and you routinely travel at very high speed.
Issues are likely to be gearbox and diff overheating - to stop this you'll need an oil cooler for each plus pumps and associated plumbing. I suspect you'll also cook starter motors even quicker than normal and heat build up in the cabin will be an issue. Having the exhaust run under the car through the transmission tunnel does you no favours at all with this.
Another point to watch out for is the chassis kicks up at the front and rear, so whatever floor you put under these areas needs to be self supporting or have lots of fixing brackets.
The floor will also collect road debris. Not a problem on a race car when the floor comes off every other session for a clean and check, but do you really want that on a road car?
Finally you'll need some way of jacking the car up with the floor on, so builing in 'hard points' front and rear for a jack would be sensible.
So in summary - lots of drawbacks for little or no gain. But best of luck if you go for it.
Issues are likely to be gearbox and diff overheating - to stop this you'll need an oil cooler for each plus pumps and associated plumbing. I suspect you'll also cook starter motors even quicker than normal and heat build up in the cabin will be an issue. Having the exhaust run under the car through the transmission tunnel does you no favours at all with this.
Another point to watch out for is the chassis kicks up at the front and rear, so whatever floor you put under these areas needs to be self supporting or have lots of fixing brackets.
The floor will also collect road debris. Not a problem on a race car when the floor comes off every other session for a clean and check, but do you really want that on a road car?
Finally you'll need some way of jacking the car up with the floor on, so builing in 'hard points' front and rear for a jack would be sensible.
So in summary - lots of drawbacks for little or no gain. But best of luck if you go for it.
M3John said:
Just food-for-thought Baz but, if this friend of yours is any good at working with the fiberglass as you say, how about getting him to mate up some `splash guards` for the front out riggers in the wheel arch.
I made some using some stainless plate...
I need to make up some for the rear too.
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