Front air dam increases performance?
 

Does the front air dam actually do anything for the car? Better Engine Cooling? Less turbulent air for the intake? Or is it just another piece of plastic they take my money for?

note the package the front air dam comes in..."APPEARANCE" package...hmm, i wonder what that could mean? ;)

needless to say, it makes the car look more aggressive and lower to the ground...it could perhaps do something performance-wise, but i highly doubt it

Usually they stop air from building up under the car and making it light at high speed. eg my 7 has a "chin spoiler" - many owners report the 3rd gen gets front end light at high speed, but mine doesn't.

Looks.

There might be some improvement in stability at higher speeds (90+). There was a noticable difference in stability on Miatas with and wilthout the front air dam at high speed.

-Dave

Yup, a front air dam is one of the very few common appearance mods that is actually functional. Side sills - useless, most wings and spoilers - useless. Front air dam - prevents as much air from flowing under the car at speed as might happen on the same vehicle without the air dam. The underside of most cars is very 'dirty', so that's a high drag region. A further factor on that is air going under the car to a high drag region builds pressure, which results in lift at the front of the car. An effective air dam will lower the coefficient of drag of a car, and reduce front end lift at highway speeds+. Note that sometimes a large front air dam can increase the frontal area of a vehicle, so even though it might reduce the coefficient of drag, the total drag of the vehicle would remain the same (total drag = frontal area x coefficient of drag). Also note that those Veilside-style front ends definitely fall into the useless category of front-end mods, usually doing nothing for reducing lift, and causing increased drag. (And they're incredibly ugly, too! ;) )

Regards,
Gordon

so to make a long story short, what category does the RX-8 front air dam fall into?

Based on experience with other Mazdas, I'd say it can be functional - especially if you spend any time over 90 MPH or so.
My Miata was "floaty" at even normal highway speeds and the front airdam made a huge, noticable difference. Now the Miata never floats, even at 120+ which is a lot for a Miata.
The underside of the RX-8, while "dirty" as mentioned by another poster, is far less dirty than any vehicle I've ever seen.
However, there will still be a boundry layer underneath that will thicken at speed so I'd say you might notice a difference.
I never got over 60 on my RX-8 before I installed my airdam, so I can't give any personal experience on that.

The other mod. that can improve aero without adding drag is a rear diffuser (under rear of car). Not sure if it will help an RX-8 yet. I've already seen one offered, of course. There is always someone willing to take your money ;).

With the big (radiator) hole in the front air dam, which runs about from the inside of one tire to the inside of the other tire, I can't imagine the re-directing of air, which would without it go under the car, to be significant. :(

Expensive pieces of plastic that are for appearances only and may actually slow the car down IMO

It's possibly it's functional. The front lower valence (lower lip) of the '99 spec or R1 spec RX-7's increase the coefficiency of drag (0.31 from 0.29) but increase the downforce on the car. It is noticably, especially if you race the car. The same could apply to the RX-8's chin. You would have to wait for wind tunnel testing to verify that statement. It may be in some Mazda tech. doc somewhere. Mazda does make these things public sometimes, so maybe if you searched around their site (and spoke japanese :)

For the average Joe, you won't notice a difference. The wing on the back of most cars are for show. most wings would have to be just slightly lower than the roof of the car to make a huge downforce difference.

I think it looks pretty cool with the front lip and appearance package. Plus if its a wider opening for the rad., the extra cooling can't hurt.

Ok wow, I'm an idiot.... I thought the front air dam was the piece of plastic that slants out and forward from underneath the car. That's what they called it on my Z28, but apparrently mazda calls a painted bottom piece of the front bumber an air dam.

Am I right? or am I really confused....

No, your right and wrong!