What the heck is the rubber flap for?
 

Hi,

First time poster here. Just picked up my car 2 days ago. I think I must have only seen Rx-8 with the factory side deflector already installed, when I picked up my car I was disturbed by the unsightly square rubber flap in front of the rear wheel. Can any one tell me what this is for? Maybe it's there just to force us into buy a body kit? In addition, does anyone know why the rubber under body strip on the side of the car is abruptly chopped of in front of the rear wheel...why didn't Mazda make this strip span the whole length of the car?

I did a search for rubber flap can came up with nothing...maybe there's another name for this ugly thing.

Thanks for your help. I am otherwise very very happy with my car...maybe it's time for me to start shopping for a body kit right away.

Zooomm

You mean the gap to allow the car to be jacked up?

You can remove the deflector if you want. It would be dumb though since it's not something you can really see.

Why are you complaining about stuff UNDER your car anyway? :)

The little rubber flap in front of the tire is for aerodynamics.
It creats a down force on the air traveling in front of the tire and rear end.
Thus deflecting the air under the lower links and not into the axles and cross members thus creating turbulance and drag,,not to mention the lift factor at high speed.
And you thought they were just for looks.

Sell your car

Ouch...

Yup. They decrease underbody turbulence and drag. I think that's the main reason for those flaps.

You can see them on many cars, those black plastic flaps up front.

Having a low hanging front air dam has the same effect. So apart from cosmetics, those large air dams can provide more aerodynamic benefit, provided it's aero benefit offsets the extra weight. They become more effective at higher speeds. At low or mid speeds, the black flaps probably offer greater benefit than the larger and heavier air dams.

I'm uncertain about the mention of them creating down force. Please explain how those flaps create down force. Not an aerodynamics expert, but I do know basic concepts of fluid dynamics.

:rofl: :rollingla

Down force on the air.
Up force on the car.

chop off the rubber flap and add extra rubber under the whole car.

The Ferrari 612 Scaglietti has same flaps. I heard that the car can't go above 184 mph without these, but easily does it with the flaps.

The flaps appear to create a low pressure area behind the oil coilers to aid in airflow and thus cooling.

Are they on the MS kit as welll?

one post wonder.

beers :beer:

yes