[USMUCL]

There are a lot of old threads on this topic, but I suspect the community has more experience now, plus there are a few more choices. I don't have the bandwidth to filter through the mess of responses I might get on Facebook with these questions.

The time has come for me to consider aero upgrades on the 2018 SS 1LE. Currently, I run P Zero scrubs with camber plates, camber arms, and rear toe lockout.

I'm convinced I want to do front and back together, but I am patient enough to buy parts slowly and look to install over the offseason. All the options seem to be tradeoffs, so here are my questions:

1) Rear: Is "swan" mount noticeably better than normal mount? Swan style seems to be pricier and, frankly, I think looks horrible. But, if the function is that much better, I'll go that direction.

2) Rear: 9-Lives seems to be popular at my track, though I read mixed reviews on the actual downforce. AJ Hartman seems great, but stupid expensive. Then, you have Klaus and Battle Aero, among others, but I can find little feedback.

3) Rear: How much more effective is chassis mount versus trunk mount? Battle Aero has a wild looking chassis mount that is not bad from a cost perspective, but I don't know if more functional than the traditional stuff you see from 9 lives or Hartman. Plus, the non-carbon fiber version is "fiber reinforced plastic" versus aluminum of 9LR or Hartman, so I'm not sure if that makes it more aesthetics than function. You ruin a bumper to install it, but the traditional stuff ruins a trunk lid, so tit-for-tat. I've also read where folks run the trunk mounted spoiler through the trunk and down to the chassis, but it's anecdotal and I have no pics on how it was done.

4) Front: Anyone here make their own? I made one on a different platform (see attached). But, I obviously never wind tunnel tested it for effectiveness. It used Professional Awesome quick connect and fit directly to the front crash bar, with the support rods also going to said crash bar. The biggest downside was it's weight. The good news, when I broke the board, I just cut a new one and kept rocking. The flipside, buying a lighter carbon fiber from the likes of AJ Hartman is EXPENSIVE.

I would love to read some thoughts from those who have gone this direction with their track car . . .

[DaveC113]

Ha, good timing. I just ordered parts from Professional Awesome for a splitter and am having a 12mm 4x8 of Meranti Aquatek plywood delivered. The whole sheet is 45 lbs so I think the splitter can be fairly light using this material and I also ordered the Ti skid pucks to protect it and make sparks, lol.

I plan on hanging the splitter from the crash bar, 2 PA QR brackets on the ends and 2 support rods. The leading edge will be doubled-up for the 1st few inches, and the trailing edge will smoothly join the cooler cutouts, but wrap around them to the sides where the QR brackets will be mounted. Since air will be moving down through the coolers I'm not sure it makes sense to extend the splitter back behind them, I'm thinking leave this area alone as the air under the splitter and air moving through the coolers will mix and there's no great way to deal with this unless you move the coolers out of the way. Most recent GT3/4 cars have splitters with much thicker leading edges that appear upturned in order to give it an airfoil profile, I think this will work but again limited to the space between the leading edge of the splitter and the front of the coolers.

On wings, I went with an AJ Fulcrum-12. It has a good lift:drag ratio which is important as our cars are power limited relative to many cars these days. My current wicker bill costs a lot of time, without it I hit 133-135 on the back straight of HPR, with it I'm 4-5 mph slower and it costs a few mpg highway too. The Fulcrum-12 produces around 400 lbs of df at 100 mph while costing you a little under 20 hp. There's also an Apex-12 dual element that will produce more df and drag.

I'm not quite sold on 9LR and figure this is a buy-once, cry-once type of purchase like my MCS shocks, lol. It's pricey but not as bad as Zebulon, while Zeb would be my 1st choice it's more in the $5k+ region while AJ was a little over $3k. I also like the looks of a bottom mount wing but went swan as there isn't a massive difference in price and the look is getting to be much more common, I think it'll be the norm for wings soon enough. I don't think a swan mount is needed to balance out whatever front splitter we might come up with or any of the off-the-shelf options though. How much better swan is depends on the application but it can be fairly significant, but again the splitter is likely the limiting factor.

On wing mounts, I picked up a base Camaro trunk lid with no holes in it from a junkyard for $250. AJ's wing mounts on the back edge and he says it doesn't require additional support. There's a YT vid on AJ's website on installing the Camaro wings below. The trunk lid has metal support brackets under the plastic trim covering the trunk opening, he has an aluminum shim that moves that support higher so the trunk doesn't bottom out on the bumper cover. The trunk also has adjustable bumpers. With the wing mounted to the back edge the downforce will go through the metal trunk support brackets which are attached to the rear wall of the trunk, which is supported by the same panel the crash bar is attached to.

[VaporPressure]

I have a swan neck dual element wing from Hartman. I really doubt the swan neck adds much in terms of function. There are so many other variables to consider given that none of these are wind tunnel tested on our cars, so I'd say just go with whatever you want there.

It's junkyard trunk-mounted with an aluminum structure under the trunk to transfer force to the chassis. I didn't want to chassis mount it but probably should have. The trunk is pretty significantly deformed from the downforce and it took a lot of work to create my own support solution.

I also have a very light, large, front CF splitter from Zebulon. It blocks the transmission cooler with zero issues so far (M6, stock power ZLE). Mounted to the crash bar with parts of the AJ Hartman kit. I like the splitter a lot. From a general perspective, I think our heavy cars need to generate a lot of downforce for us to feel an actual difference. So I went as aggressive as I could. Currently trying to make the car want to oversteer on entry from too much front downforce, then balance it out with wing AOA until handling is barely neutral. Not there yet.

[USMUCL]

I have a line on a Klaus swan mounted wing for cheap. The upside is that it's carbon fiber and only weighs 14lbs with the aluminum mounts. The downside to it is that it must be welded in. I might pick it up and have it welded onto a junkyard trunk lid over the winter .... and continue watching for front aero or make my own.

[Baddawg53]

I am using the APR GTC300 wing, bottom mount to the trunk lid. I like it, it looks good and based on the available CFD data it falls in-between the Hartman and 9LR wings. I have a homemade splitter mounted with Hartman kit. It obviously wouldn't produce the downforce of the Hartman CF piece, but replacing it after an off will hurt a lot less!! I used the pucks from professional awesome racing also. I also have dive planes and have vented the fenders.

[USMUCL]

Originally Posted by Baddawg53

I am using the APR GTC300 wing, bottom mount to the trunk lid. I like it, it looks good and based on the available CFD data it falls in-between the Hartman and 9LR wings. I have a homemade splitter mounted with Hartman kit. It obviously wouldn't produce the downforce of the Hartman CF piece, but replacing it after an off will hurt a lot less!! I used the pucks from professional awesome racing also. I also have dive planes and have vented the fenders.

That looks great. I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit on the splitter; aside from being heavier than the Hartman CF, the only thing that would affect DF, IMO, is how far it gets extended. Yours seems comparable.

[Baddawg53]

Originally Posted by USMUCL

That looks great. I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit on the splitter; aside from being heavier than the Hartman CF, the only thing that would affect DF, IMO, is how far it gets extended. Yours seems comparable.

Thanks, I definitely love how it looks. I'm sure it does something, but I did not extend it as much as I think I should have. Loading it into the trailer can be tricky already I didn't want to add to that. It's also missing the splitter tunnels which apparently help a lot?

Overall the setup works, the car is pretty neutral handling. I do have the sway bars stiffer in the front to shift more grip to the rear. I'm sure the 315 front tires have a lot to do with the great front grip too. I also took a bunch of weight out of the car and most of that is towards the rear shifting more grip to the front also. The shocks and sway bar adjustments definitely help dial it in after the constant changes the car gets.

[carguy55]

I added an APR splitter and 9LR wing several years ago. At the time it was relatively cheap and there wasn't much else out there. I went with the traditional under the wing mount. The swan mounts are supposed to give a little bit more down force. Just look at what new race cars are doing, and there's down force charts that show this. Came down to looks for me and cost for me in the beginning..

I just recently built my own 6" splitter using AJs mounting kit, which has a lift and lock up option for extra ground clearance. This works great for loading on the trailer, street driving etc. Not as good as a quick release mount. It's also all chassis mounted which has a lot of benefits. Definitely more downforce than the APR splitter. Good thing about the 9LR wing is all the adjustments. You can get it powder coated in various colors.

Now that I have a better splitter I'll be looking at other wings. The tracks I run I don't take too many corner at 90+mph, so a larger wing that gives more downforce at a lower speed would be a benefit.

[USMUCL]

So, I ended up going with Klaus for the wing. I found it locally for for a steal; just couldn't turn down getting a quality $3k carbon fiber wing for $750.

I then grabbed an extra trunk locally for $200. Will have the wing welded on, which is how it was designed to be installed. Then, will have the pylons and trunk done in satin or flat black before putting the CF wing back on.

Won't go on the car until I'm ready to do the front. Leaning towards cracking the wallet open for an AJ Hartman. My thought was pay once and, before installing, use the CF board to trace and cut a replacement out of a 3/8" plywood, so that I have something to fall back on if the original CF ever gets broken.

[DaveC113]

Originally Posted by USMUCL

So, I ended up going with Klaus for the wing. I found it locally for for a steal; just couldn't turn down getting a quality $3k carbon fiber wing for $750.

I then grabbed an extra trunk locally for $200. Will have the wing welded on, which is how it was designed to be installed. Then, will have the pylons and trunk done in satin or flat black before putting the CF wing back on.

Won't go on the car until I'm ready to do the front. Leaning towards cracking the wallet open for an AJ Hartman. My thought was pay once and, before installing, use the CF board to trace and cut a replacement out of a 3/8" plywood, so that I have something to fall back on if the original CF ever gets broken.

Nice, good deal!

Here's a video on some new aero parts for a BMW. Since our cars are BMW clones we have the same cooler in front of the radiator, but ours is a trans cooler, I think Misha said the BMW cooler was an oil cooler. This is obviously important but moreso for autos.

I think if you put a larger splitter on the front you'll get higher air pressure in front of the car to some degree, which will push the air down through the cooler. So now I plan on covering the cooler but leaving a gap at the end of the splitter for the air to evacuate, and the splitter might even help with airflow or at least not impeded it too much. If the trans cooler needs more air, there's a slot in the BMW splitter in the vid that looks like an excellent design. OTOH, I don't love AJ's Camaro splitter ventilation as much, the holes seem like a suboptimal solution, but he can leave them out. Those holes are going to significantly reduce how effective the splitter is... The AJ Splitter has a foam core and airfoil profile so replacing it with plywood will be MUCH less effective unless you work on shaping the plywood similar to the AJ splitter, which is possible given the right tools. I also just checked out a Zebulon splitter on a car at Time Trials this weekend and it's quite thick for a splitter, maybe a little thicker than the AJ, and the underside is fully shaped. Looks great but also expensive. AJ's splitter would be less expensive but still not cheap, and neither are quick release.

[USMUCL]

Originally Posted by DaveC113

Nice, good deal!

Here's a video on some new aero parts for a BMW. Since our cars are BMW clones we have the same cooler in front of the radiator, but ours is a trans cooler, I think Misha said the BMW cooler was an oil cooler. This is obviously important but moreso for autos.

I think if you put a larger splitter on the front you'll get higher air pressure in front of the car to some degree, which will push the air down through the cooler. So now I plan on covering the cooler but leaving a gap at the end of the splitter for the air to evacuate, and the splitter might even help with airflow or at least not impeded it too much. If the trans cooler needs more air, there's a slot in the BMW splitter in the vid that looks like an excellent design. OTOH, I don't love AJ's Camaro splitter ventilation as much, the holes seem like a suboptimal solution, but he can leave them out. Those holes are going to significantly reduce how effective the splitter is... The AJ Splitter has a foam core and airfoil profile so replacing it with plywood will be MUCH less effective unless you work on shaping the plywood similar to the AJ splitter, which is possible given the right tools. I also just checked out a Zebulon splitter on a car at Time Trials this weekend and it's quite thick for a splitter, maybe a little thicker than the AJ, and the underside is fully shaped. Looks great but also expensive. AJ's splitter would be less expensive but still not cheap, and neither are quick release.

Some good points.

1) I forgot about the profile shape of AJ's, which would be unlikely to get with plywood. Perhaps pricing a replacement CF board from him is the right move; I think it's a matter of "when" and not "if" the boards get damaged between track and trailer.

2) Also, as you noted, I wonder if leaving the trans cooler hole completely off is the right move for manual transmissions?

3) I also noted that there are no diffuser tunnels on the AJ board. I wonder if unnecessary or not practical, given the mounting points or other obstructions . . .

[cdrptrks]

FYI in case you're not aware, the trunk deck lid needs to be from a 2018+ model year due to added internal reinforcements:

https://www.camaro6.com/forums/showt...1#post10259281

[USMUCL]

Originally Posted by cdrptrks

FYI in case you're not aware, the trunk deck lid needs to be from a 2018+ model year due to added internal reinforcements:

https://www.camaro6.com/forums/showt...1#post10259281

Thanks. My car is an 18, and the spare trunk is allegedly from a 2021. Not sure what to look for to confirm that, however.

[Msquared]

On the swan mounts, I think the idea is that where the supports mount to the wing adds higher pressure. You want high pressure on the upper surface and low pressure underneath, which is how the downforce is created. Therefore, it functions better to attach the supports to the upper surface.