I'm curious about ordering a front air dam, but want to know how much clearance I'm losing between the bottom of stock bumper/fascia and where the bottom of air dam ends up?
Over the winter I want to add an air dam and build a splitter that attaches to it and goes back to at least the subframe.
No class rules to follow, only for HPDE/my own personal enjoyment.
I'm currently looking at the one Flyin' Miata sells, any other suggestions? I do NOT like the look of 949Racing piece.
1990 Stock Miata piece 1995 TougeRun splitter from Flyin Miata
Splitter seems to work better, definately looks more aggresive
FM sells a splitter? I'm talking about the front air dam.
http://flyinmiata.com/index.php?deptid=4544&parentid=0&stocknumber=29-77550%20%201990-97
And asking how much lower it sits to the ground vs the bottom of the stock bumper.
I just happen to have both the factory airdam and the Touge Run one in Miatas in my own garage. So I checked.
Since the air dam covers more than just the lowest point of the bumper, it's difficult to get an exact difference as I have no Miatas here with unmodified front bumpers. So I measured from the bottom of the air dam to the center of the groove in the bumper. The Touge Run is 13.25" below that groove all the way around.
The factory one is more sculpted on the bottom, but in the middle of the nose it's 12.5" below. So it's 3/4" higher than the Touge Run one at the lowest point.
I can vouch for the ability of these to deform. I have actually folded mine right under the car when it got caught on a trailer ramp when I was loading and running at track height. It popped right back out. I was also, umm, testing and took a very aggressive entry into a gravel cut with a drop. The air dam hit hard and threw gravel everywhere. It pulled a few of the fasteners out, but I just replaced them and you can not tell now.
I've abused the factory unit somewhat as well over the years, but nowhere near as badly as it's never been on cars that see quite as much abuse...
FM does not sell a splitter, but I have made one for the Targa Miata as well as a belly pan that goes to the skid plate underneath. All three parts can be removed separately. Easy enough. Tip: rivnuts.
^I bet people would buy a kit of the air dam + splitter, just sayin'!
Thanks for the info. My car doesn't have a factory air dam? Just the bumper cover.
Yeah, I could use one. My car is sloppy underneath. It just has a R-package double chin, and with all the claptrap behind the snout, it ain't pretty from below.
Keith Tanner wrote:
Whose 928 in the background and what's the story behind it?
David
z31, my particular splitter only works if you have my particular skid plate, which only works if you have a V8. So the market may be smaller than you think 
The 928 belongs to Eric, one of the mechanics at FM. No story, it's just his cool car. He usually drives a WRX, but the 928 shows up once every week or two when he feels like driving it. Other occasional cool cars that show up are a BMW 2002 and some of my toys, like the M5 or the MGB. There are surprisingly few people who drive Miatas to work at FM and nobody who owns one as an only car.
Keith Tanner wrote: z31, my particular splitter only works if you have my particular skid plate, which only works if you have a V8. So the market may be smaller than you think
Maybe design one for the raft of guys that still have 4 cylinders?
I'll probably just buy some decently thick ABS plastic over the winter and attach it to the airdam.
Thanks for the measurements!
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