[Road Trip]

Mazda's name for the optional aero piece that goes under the front fascia, their calling it a "front air dam," is so wrong. It is not damming up air. Quite the contrary, for it is functionally splitting the air into two components, that which is being forced into the front air grille for better cooling and that which is exerting downforce, creating better front end "stick," forcing the front wheels into the pavement to assist in getting the car to turn.

I candidly doubt that for most of our Mazda's, the splitter really is doing much positive for our aerodynamics -- the latter as it was originally designed to do in racing circles. Instead for most of us who chose it, it is solely an "aesthetic, style-points upgrade."

I love vehicle racing in its many forms, whether we are talking F1, oval track, auto cross, rally, and most special to me, sports car racing. Even watch NASCAR a little bit. Every one of the race event announcers I have heard call that the front "thing" a splitter!" In fact, never once in decades of going to a track, have I ever heard a member of a pit crew, a driver, or a race engineer call it a "front under spoiler." Also never heard any of them call it an "air dam."

From now on, I am only going to call it the front "aero thing" what it is properly called, a splitter. And commendation to @JDabzzz, who called it a front splitter in his thread a month ago!

Tomorrow morning, I am going to call and talk with one of the top two Mazda communications specialists in North America, and suggest it is time for them to re-name it a "front splitter." Probably just going to be wasting my time LOL, but I will give it a shot. And thanks for reading my mini-rant.

 

[frankis]

Good luck!!!

 

[arathol]

Mazda's name for the optional aero piece that goes under the front fascia, their calling it a "front air dam," is so wrong. It is not damming up air. Quite the contrary, for it is functionally splitting the air into two components, that which is being forced into the front air grille for better cooling and that which is exerting downforce, creating better front end "stick," forcing the front wheels into the pavement to assist in getting the car to turn.

I candidly doubt that for most of our Mazda's, the splitter really is doing much positive for our aerodynamics -- the latter as it was originally designed to do in racing circles. Instead for most of us who chose it, it is solely an "aesthetic, style-points upgrade."

I love vehicle racing in its many forms, whether we are talking F1, oval track, auto cross, rally, and most special to me, sports car racing. Even watch NASCAR a little bit. Every one of the race event announcers I have heard call that the front "thing" a splitter!" In fact, never once in decades of going to a track, have I ever heard a member of a pit crew, a driver, or a race engineer call it a "front under spoiler." Also never heard any of them call it an "air dam."

From now on, I am only going to call it the front "aero thing" what it is properly called, a splitter. And commendation to @JDabzzz, who called it a front splitter in his thread a month ago!

Tomorrow morning, I am going to call and talk with one of the top two Mazda communications specialists in North America, and suggest it is time for them to re-name it a "front splitter." Probably just going to be wasting my time LOL, but I will give it a shot. And thanks for reading my mini-rant.

Not quite true. The splitter is that flat piece that runs in a horizontal plane under or around the front air dam. These parts do not exert down force on the front wheels. What they do is create airflow around the car in such a way that a low pressure area is created under the car. The result of this low pressure area is more down force all around and more cool air being drawn into the radiator. This last part is pertinent to the Mazda 3. If you look under the hood there is a piece of plastic covering the engine, and the car also has undertrays across most of the underbody. These bits direct and control the air flowing through the grill, removing heated air from the engine bay and drawing it out through the bottom of the car.
Splitters and such aero bits don't really do much at normal road legal speeds. The splitter is used to balance the front/rear downforce distribution.
That part in the front called an air dam or spoiler. That is the name commonly used everywhere and has been for as long as I can remember.

splitter-

Splitter and air dam

Air dam - definition of air dam by The Free Dictionary

Car Aerodynamic Upgrades Guide| Rapid-Racer.com.

 

[Cookie_Thumper]

These are splitter, with a 7 degree diffusor, they give us 150kg of downforce on our maz 2 race cars.



here's the rear wing I made new mounts for to give better adjustability.

 

[USCTrojan4JC]

I like "Front Spoiler Lip" or "Front Lip Spoiler." I just go with what the official materials say, though.

What was the result of your conversation, Road Trip?