2002 Aero

Wherein a long-festering set of ideas may finally begin the transformation into actual physical things. The subject (victim?):

Where did this all start? Well, I've owned my 74 2002 (as seen above) for 20+ years, and I've had intermittent bouts of desire to replace the big safety bumpers with slimmer early versions. Some time back I picked up a set of 73 bumpers in semi-rough shape. They sat on the shelf for a good long while, but I recently decided it was time to paint them black and get them mounted. Got them sandblasted and they're ready for paint.

But while mulling all of this, as the older bumpers are lighter and less lumber-like in aerodynamic profile, I started to consider that there might be some aero tweaks that could be implemented on the very upright and decidedly not aerodynamically efficient body to clean things up a bit. It's usually bad when I start thinking, but once it starts it's hard to stop.

The outline sketch at this point is to eventually fabricate and mount the following (in addition to mounting the bumpers):

• Partial grill block and radiator ducting
• Air dam (there's already a Zender lip spoiler on the trunk lid)
• Tray under at least the front half of the engine bay
• Tray under the area behind the rear axle

Planning to work primarily with aluminum to keep weight down. Sorry, but I'm not doing the ecomodder coroplast thing. Maybe on a beat-to-crap 20 year old Civic, but not this. I'd like the mods to be largely invisible, or failing that, aesthetically tolerable.

How much will this affect the aerodynamics of the car? No idea. Smoothing the airflow and directing more air around rather than through and under can't be bad (right?), but in terms of real effects, your guess is as good as mine. I don't really care too much to be honest. If I see some improvements in fuel efficiency (the car has dual Webers and a built motor, so it will always be somewhat thirsty) or crosswind stability I'll be happy, but it's more an experiment than anything else.

As someone that has a 2002 in the project stage I'm really interested. Btw if you're looking for cheap aluminum sheet I got a bunch from a local printer for scrap prices.

I would love to see a walk around of pictures, your "duce" looks great. But aero and 2002 in the same quest are going to be a challenge.

Adding a front splitter that runs past the engine and ties into the frame rails would clean up the front end. I have looked at using the Ireland Engineering front sway bar as a break point between the two sections. Are you thinking of adding 15" rims, tires and the flares to the car?

You might also look at the roof spoiler used on the 3.0 CSL, to work with the Zender trunk lid addition. The tray under the back end is going to have to take into account the spare tire well, rear muffler and the gas tank. I look forward to how you work it out.

The car already has 15" wheels. I have no plans for flares or any other external additions beyond the air dam.

I've got some ideas on the undertrays. The basic plan is to use aluminum bar stock to build a framework of sorts, which will incorporate the mounting points and be riveted to the aluminum skin. I have a pretty good sense of what will be needed to get the areas I mentioned smooth. I'll probably start on the front one first, as it's the simpler of the two.

I've started fooling around with the grill blocking. The initial setup is simply aluminum flashing cut to fit flush to the back of the side grills, drilled to use the original mounting screws. Even without the radiator fully ducted (I need additional panels to keep air from spilling into the voids behind the grills) I've noticed the coolant reaches operating temperature much faster and temps tend to be more consistent in normal driving. Probably no real impact on fuel economy.

The panels I have in there now have predictably bowed inward somewhat after a few drives, so the next steps will be to reinforce those with aluminum bar stock and build the rest of the ducting for the radiator.

Love the color of your 02.

Apparently sheeting in under the trunk can add significant speed at the end of a straight to a road race 2002, so I'd say that's a good one to do.

Did I see this car parked at Lime Rock today?

Woody wrote: Did I see this car parked at Lime Rock today?

Yep. I was up there for the morning session.

ManhattanM (fka NY535iManual) said: Love the color of your 02.

Thanks!

RX8driver said: Apparently sheeting in under the trunk can add significant speed at the end of a straight to a road race 2002, so I'd say that's a good one to do.

Interesting. It's certainly an area that could use some cleaning up. Do you have a source on this info, especially one I could consult when I go to design that piece?

A friend of the family had a pretty radical 2002 race car and was telling me about how he closed in the trunk floor in the off season and it added significant straight line speed to the car using the same motor.

RX8driver wrote: A friend of the family had a pretty radical 2002 race car and was telling me about how he closed in the trunk floor in the off season and it added significant straight line speed to the car using the same motor.

Makes sense. The whole rear valance is like a sail, and the rear subframe area is very messy aerodynamically.