Front Fender Louvers for Roadster

[skullandbones]

Did a search but couldn't find references to this subject.

Has anyone installed louvers in top of the fenders or cut louvers in the top of the front fenders. I have never seen pics of originals on the fenders but have seen many with hood louvers. I was curious to see if this mod could improve the front end stability at speed. Any pics of such an application would be appreciated.

Thank you,

WEK.

[CobraFan460]

Hey WEK,

The only ones I have ever seen on a roadster body were on the BDR Track version of their car - but those were just one wide vertical slot at the trailing edge of the wheel opening. I'm certainly no expert but in all the years I've been building my FFR and perusing the web, I've not seen anything else like what you describe.

Todd

[68GT500MAN]

Over the years I have seen the louvers you mention only on GTM's but never on a roadster. I believe that most of the lift comes from the center opening in the body and that is why hood louvers and splitters are used.
Doug

[Bob Cowan]

I have seen it done in a roadster. Doesn't look good to me, but that's subjective. I have no idea if it actually works or not.

[DaleG]

I think Ron "MetalMorphous" has done a few.

[skullandbones]

Hey WEK,

The only ones I have ever seen on a roadster body were on the BDR Track version of their car - but those were just one wide vertical slot at the trailing edge of the wheel opening. I'm certainly no expert but in all the years I've been building my FFR and perusing the web, I've not seen anything else like what you describe.

Todd

I couldn't find a pic of what you described in the BDR stuff but that sounds like something that might look OK for the purpose. The traditional louvers you see on relatively flat panels and on hoods would not lend themselves to the curvilinear shape of the top fender. I was thinking in terms of something that would still have the original shape but with the "louver" built into the top like a "fish gill" as one person put it on another forum.
At certain angles, you wouldn't even see the opening. I will have to keep searching and perhaps make a template with the curve of the roadster fender and the opening to see if I can get a fair representation of it.

Thanks,

WEK.

[CraigS]

I would want to verify in some way that there is pressure inside the fender well that needs to be relieved before I did anything. W/ the curvature involved it is going to be a tough fab job to make it look nice. If it has no real purpose then why all the work.

[CobraFan460]

Hmmm...your are right, I couldn't find any good pics on their website either and not much on the web. I guess I am remembering some magazine pics I saw. I did find 2 on the web (below) but they are not very big nor at the best angle but maybe they will give you the idea of what I meant.

Todd

[skullandbones]

Very interesting! And they're not badly done. It's not what I had in mind but I'm like you, I just haven't seen examples out there.

Craig S: short of wind tunnel testing, I can't imagine how you would verify the air flow. I suppose you could use the "tell tale" approach to see if you got flow thru the louver but it would not prove it reduces the air pressure. I've heard that removing air from underneath the car is good no matter how you get it done. I plan on adding a splitter and a diffuser on my MKIII no matter whether I do the fender louvers or not. The diffuser will conveniently cover the exposed lower half of the gas tank. My wife's Camero has one and I love it. It's also something that if I didn't like it, it would be an easy undo. However, the fender louvers is another story. I will have to think hard about cutting into those beautiful curves. Thanks, WEK.

[DaleG]

I remember a thread from ffcars.com a while back that sort of addressed this. I think GoodGuyEddie posted that he attached string to the inside of the hood scoop, and at speed the string was forced out of the scoop?

[skullandbones]

I tried going over to the "dark side" to check out the lead and found that I can't log in. I guess I should visit there a little more often and actually log in! Oh well.