To be fair Moti, that car has not seen a lot of track time sitting directly behind other cars as Hyper has. I think the question was directed more at horizontally oriented heat exchangers exposed to the ground at splitter level. Those can be made to work but I suggest not exposing him to the ground instead feeding them with air that comes in through the nose. Ultimately no heat exchanger anywhere in the front of the car should have a direct path to a bounced stone. If it is exposed it should be behind the screen. If there is some ducting in between the exchanger and the air inlet that will catch or deflect a stone then a screen is not needed.

Not sure where you're going with it, my splitter is not open on the bottom like Ryan's old one, the ducting into the coolers comes from the nose.

Maybe I perceive things incorrectly but the discussion seemed to stem from horizontally oriented heat exchangers mounted below the radiator that are exposed to the ground without a protective mesh of some sort. That would exclude example you offered, unless I am missing something.

My point is simply that it is still an acceptable and effective heat exchanger location but only if it is not exposed to the ground and instead receives its feed through the bumper skin.

It might be important to note that, drawbacks aside, the downforce benefits of the center diffuser as implemented on my old splitter would be completely eliminated by a blocking the airflow path with a cooler.

Both Moti and Emilio are making the same point; that mounting the cooler horizontally just forward of the steering rack is actually a good option, but it's far better to duct air to them from the nose rather than from below the splitter. Both Creampuff and Vegas are done that way.

I actually have mine mounted with fm brackets but no under tray. I was anticipating that the capacity of the cooler wouldn't be enough without ducting or direct airflow of some sort, but I'm only at 220whp on the track and 25 minute sessions (race pace but HPDE) so maybe it will be okay.

I suppose I'll build my splitter without it and measure temps.

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What about having an opening in the splitter/undertray just below the horizontally mounted cooler with some heavy duty grating or mesh to protect the cooler?

Check to make sure cooler is okay with horizontal mounting. For some reason last one I installed albeit a transmission cooler specifically said not to mount in any other orientation but vertical. Any opening with grating you'll want to have flow numbers if possible to know how much protection to air flow your doing. More protection, less air flow. Test and let us know how it works for you.