Bloody Speed humps

[steveab]

Help, In my infinite wisdom I''ve taken a speed hump a bit too quick / wrong angle. There was a painful scrap and I appear to have ripped off a splitter / protector off the front underside of my Chim. It looks pretty mangled but I think I can sort it out. My questions are: 1. What is it, a splitter, a sump guard? 2. What are the effects of removing it (ie if its a splitter then will the airflow be hampered?) 3. Can I (or more importantly) should I buy a new one rather then hammering the old one back to shape. Any assistance would greatly be recieved, although I don''t believe I''m the only one to have done this!!! Steve

[Graham and Rosie]

The bit of metal you have ripped off is the chin spoiler (by the sound of it) and costs about 15GBP fitted, it is supposed to help high speed stability, so you may not notice the difference, but if you do some high speeds (on a test track obviously ) then get it fitted again, it is only 4 screws so not a big job! ================ Graham and Rosie

[steveab]

Phew, Thanks for the info, I think that I will remove it altogether and get my dealer to fit a new one the next time it goes in. Bearing in mind that it was 'screwed' into something, there is probably gonna be a GRP / filler repair job where it was wrenched off! As to high speeds, I'm putting off the track days for a year since the insurance is a big pain in the wallet (1K) - ouch! So I will be sticking to general road use!! Cheers Steve

[Graham and Rosie]

Not much chance of GRP filler or repair, much more likley that you will find the spoiler either forward or backward by about 0.5" New holes is a lot easier, quicker and more likely to last!! ================ Graham and Rosie

[steveab]

Hmm, Just whipped the old spolier off a few mins ago. Seems well and truely mangled. I'm going to leave it off and see if I notice the performance. Problem is there are hundreds of damm speed humps where I live (Milton Keynes), they're great for stopping 1.2 Nova driving morans from screeming around but unfortunatley they also seem to destroy low slung cars like TVRs (also high spec MW and Mercs - But who cares!!)

[manek]

What am I missing? As far as I can see, my Chimaera (1995 4.0) has no such splitter nor as far as I know as it ever had one. Wish it had since it would aid the marginal cooling....

[graham]

my 96 doesnt have it either, and i carnt see any holes where it might have been screwed on. handling is ok to 155 ( calibrated by french police) do they all have it or is it a case of if they had any you got one?

[davidd]

I took my fourth or fifth lip spoiler off this weekend as one side of it had bent so much is was catching the road. I've got a bit of a thing with these, usually breaking one a year so I decided to see what difference it makes to the temp of the engine. Without the spoiler the fans are in more around town, the car gets hotter on the drive to work (15 miles on back roads)and when it has got hot it takes longer to cool down when you get back onto the open road. Stability wise it seems the same as it always did (not that I've been stupidly fast in it this weekend). So I think the main purpose of the the spoiler is to direct airflow into the rad which is seems to do very well. I guess I'll be getting a new one.

[Graham and Rosie]

quote:my 96 doesnt have it either, and i carnt see any holes where it might have been screwed on. handling is ok to 155 ( calibrated by french police) do they all have it or is it a case of if they had any you got one?

I believe they were only fitted to "later" cars, but no idea from when! They are easy enough to fit if you feel you need one, and the cars without don't seem to worry too much, so fit one if you want, leave it off if you don't, no big deal by the sound of it - although it may help air flow through the rad!! ================ Graham and Rosie

[manek]

Since I've had the mesh grille fitted, its slightly smaller frontal area left open has meant that at sustained high speeds and on track days, cooling ain't what it oughta be. So I think I might get Fernies to fit one for me when I take the beast in for servicing on Friday. And get a smaller number plate....