[crfine88]

#31

What started as a cosmetic piece to protect the front bumper became a functional piece by the end of the project.

Given the low ride height of the M, I wanted some sort of front splitter to protect the fangs on the front bumper. After endless searching I realized there wasn’t anything out there I was interested in. There are a few promising prototypes out there, but I needed something now.


Good Speed came through again! They had an oversized generic APR carbon fiber splitter that they were going to use for a wide body STI project. That Project went another direction and this piece was sitting around collecting dust. I decided to buy this piece for two purposes:

1. Solve the immediate problem of protecting the bumper before my next track day.
2. Begin a sort of R&D process for making a desirable front splitter for the M coupe.


Cliff notes on the process:
1. Covered the oversized piece in blue painters tape to protect the finish.
2. Removed the bumper and made a template using the bumper and a set of RPI skid plates.
3. Drew the outline of the template directly onto the painters tape.
4. Cut the splitter to match the M coupe bumper and undercarriage using a jig saw and a very fine 32 tpi blade.
5. Secured finish molding to outside edge.
6. Remove cut tape and re-apply painters tape to protect finish during mounting process.
7. Mounted the splitter to the bumper @ 11 locations including the 7 factory hardware locations.
8. Installed the bumper and affixed the splitter to three more locations under the car.
9. Drove to Southern CA and picked up a set of splitter support braces from APR.
10. Completed my journey in Northern Can and installed the splitter support braces in my buddy’s garage.


The end result was good and I got it done on time. The splitter looked better than I had anticipated and with the adjustable splitter support braces, it was also a functional piece. To get the full benefit of being a functional piece for down force, I probably have to cover the opening between the fangs. This was a good first round on the splitter and I plan to try another idea soon.