Thoughts on cost and availability of Aluminum skid plate or belly pan? Protection and Aero?

[Noleftist]

2022 MACH 1
I’m thinking I would appreciate an aluminum skid plate or belly pan for longevity over the seemingly very brittle and expensive plastic one that comes on the car.
How much is aero a concern when tracking the car?
Other parts and experience?
Thank you.

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[Jstang23]

Realistically, how much track experience do you have? If you are highly experienced yes aero should be a big concern to address. If you are still learning or even modestly experienced; grip (I.E. better tires), driver mod, and brakes should be your biggest concern.

In the real world our cars are not very aerodynamic from the factory anyways, and as a road car we will never be able to drastically improve our aero to reach anything that a real race car would have. If you've got the money and the time (a lot) you could see some gains from adding an underpan. This would allow you to take advantage of a rear diffuser. The factory plastic is actually pretty durable, I wouldn't switch to aluminum unless something breaks. Also adding a large front splitter will help the flow over the car, and as discussed earlier a large area rear wing. Happy to discuss tracking in detail through a PM!

Cheers!

 

[Noleftist]

Realistically, how much track experience do you have? If you are highly experienced yes aero should be a big concern to address. If you are still learning or even modestly experienced; grip (I.E. better tires), driver mod, and brakes should be your biggest concern.

In the real world our cars are not very aerodynamic from the factory anyways, and as a road car we will never be able to drastically improve our aero to reach anything that a real race car would have. If you've got the money and the time (a lot) you could see some gains from adding an underpan. This would allow you to take advantage of a rear diffuser. The factory plastic is actually pretty durable, I wouldn't switch to aluminum unless something breaks. Also adding a large front splitter will help the flow over the car, and as discussed earlier a large area rear wing. Happy to discuss tracking in detail through a PM!

Cheers!
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I was at summit point the 9-10th if I remember correctly and then I was at VIR I think two weekends before that for 3 days!
I did a my track time at Summit point maybe a month ago and that was only with a pace car so we didn’t really get to push it at all. But other than that my first Real track time was at VIR less than an month ago and Summit point. I did do a day at Summit point decades ago maybe 20-30 years ago and a piece of shit Honda CRXSI.
I am HPDE 1 now, but my instructors are saying I should move up to HPDE2. I think the reason I seem to be able do progress what seems like a fairly quick pace is because I’ve done a little bit of GNCC RACING and a lot of mountain bike racing. What would you say are the pluses and minuses of moving up?
One of the drawbacks to moving up is it seems they have more crashes and therefore lose track time. When I was at Summit point a weekend Ago the HPDE2 group lost literally half of their track time.
I like driving my car as a daily but track performance is also important. One of the first reasons I started tracking, was to find the limits of my stock Michelin P4S, the brakes, the chassis, etc., and my abilities. I THINK this would transfer to being a better driver on the roads.
I seem to have a joy for performance and a certain amount of competition. This seems to fit with my other sports and activities.

My stock skid plate/belly pan is already all broken up so I need to replace it preferably with something better is my thought.

I already have the MACH 1 with the handling package, so I already have all the goodies as far as aero. I do like the looks of it, but I wonder about the real world application of some of it as you may have seen from some of my other threads or postings.
Thank you.

 

[GTP]

2022 MACH 1
I’m thinking I would appreciate an aluminum skid plate or belly pan for longevity over the seemingly very brittle and expensive plastic one that comes on the car.
How much is aero a concern when tracking the car?
Other parts and experience?
Thank you.

Is your question about the belly pan or the extra splitter?

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