Ugly, old picture, but the brackets are still the same.

 

Don't know these guys--never seen their work, but they seem to build a lot of splitters for the good ol' boys that go roundy round racing.

Autosport Wear Ply by Delignit | precision metal cutting | abrasive precision metal Cutting | Power Stream Industries Locust, NC

 

Hell of a price tag - $400+ship for a 1/4" sheet big enough to build one splitter. I really, really doubt that it's worth the additional cost (a sheet of 12mm Birch is $40 at Home Depot), especially for your average HPDE guy.

 

Agreed. Until I got feedback from this forum most of the splitter material I've seen is aluminum honeycomb, carbon or 'glass over plywood. It seems like quality birch plywood is the material for a track-only car.

I'd still like to do some experimenting with HDPE or UHMW with aluminum or s-glass as a street option. I was planning on having HDPE runners for my aluminum sheet on the bottom of the car, but it seems that birch may be better--and cheaper.

 

I would be against UHMW, at this point there are other plastics that are easier to work with and can do the same things that are also cheaper, and it wouldnt be all that great for a splitter anyways. I could see you using it to make wear blocks on the bottom but delrin would be a better choice for that (steel might be an even better choice).

 

Seriously get 6mm stuff from home depot. Glue together to make it double thickness you can actually flatten warpage by placing heavy objects on it on a flat surface as the glue dries. before you glue them cut out the top layer so you only have double thickness where it attaches and where it sticks forward of the front of the car plus maybe a few key bending load paths makes it ~30% lighter than 12mm or 1/2" and still have stiffness and strength you want.

Bob

 

I like the heck out of this idea..

 

Bob, with the 2 layer design, do you put the step on the top or bottom?

 

I went with Birch originally because it was cheap, and would thus be cheap to replace, but it's so damn stout I haven't had to replace it yet.

I built one for a customer a couple of years ago who ran it into a curb, tore it off, and ran over it - all he did was rebuild the aluminum frame and re-attach the same piece of birch to the car.

 

Another user of plywood splitters -- Brianne Corn's Pike's Peak Subaru STi. They went with a very thick 3/4", but you can see towards the end of the post where the driver is standing on the splitter.

Placed 5th at PPIHC on a cold/wet run.

 

Top, Bottom is still flat.

Bob

 

FWIW I have also done a couple of them where I covered top and bottom with a single layer of woven fiberglass. Makes it tough as hell and much more weather resistant. Did one with epoxy fiberglass and one with cheaper polyester. The epoxy works well polyester isn’t near as tough at bonding to the wood for when your drilling and countersinking or keeping the wood from absorbing water.

Adding the fiberglass however makes it cost several times more to make. Probably adds just under $100 for mat and resin

 

Good idea Bob! I'll give that a try

 

Sweet, I'm gonna be making one of these this weekend probably. Looks like I'll be using 12mm birch. Does anyone know where to buy turnbuckles for the front?

 

The good ones you can get online at racing supply shops (like Pegasus racing), but you can get lower quality ones at home depot/lowes/ACE in the hardware department. Look for the ones with aluminum bodies, as they are lighter than the steel ones (although neither are as light as the motorsports specific ones you can get online) You will also want to pick up some nuts of the same size to use as jam nuts to keep them from loosening themselves.

 

The motorsport specific ones even have 2 types that I know of (likely even more than that), one is like 25 for a pair and use two bolts on either end, and the other its stupidly light but 18 bucks a piece and only use 1 bolt on each end. They're normally called spoiler supports or something to do with spoilers.

 

Awesome I'll weigh the options, thanks!

 

im gonna start working on a 12mm birch splitter, did you guys notice a difference, in cooling, underhood turbulence, downforce?

 

I don't know how one would notice a difference in underhood turbulence. Check out the DIY Aero thread for people's results. I did see a notable difference in downforce and cooling.

 

Was the cooling improvement coupled with reverse vents out of the hood?