What are air splitters for?

What are canards for?

I've been seing alot of pics of cars with canards on the front bumper. I was wondering what they are used for. I don't think they can generate any downforce since they are not that big. So what are they for?

well... to split air!!! basically on a car that didn't go in a wind tunnel to have them engineered to work properly with it... they are about as useful as my SiR front spoiler... esthetics only.

they serve to increase downforce without increasing drag by optimizing the path of air, and lowering the frontal air pressure on the nose of the car.

it's always in function of speed...you gotta go really fast to get some downforce...
good for planes though

Originally posted by Daso
they serve to increase downforce without increasing drag by optimizing the path of air, and lowering the frontal air pressure on the nose of the car.

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couldn't of said it better myself,,

the faster air travels , the lower the air pressure which creates downforce or upforce depending on the position of the wing...

to fill such a force a car has to be travelling at high speeds

and lowering the frontal air pressure on the nose of the car.

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You have the general idea but it's actually the opposite for the nose- air dams/splitters force some of the air that would otherwise go under the car to go over the top or around the sides of the car, which a) reduces pressure on the bottom of the car, thus "sucking" it down, and b) increases pressure around the nose area. A splitter has a horizontal surface added to the air dam, which basically acts like a wing for the high-pressure air to push down. It also helps radiator cooling or ram-air intakes. And with less air under the bumpy, uneven chassis, it can reduce drag too.

basically on a car that didn't go in a wind tunnel to have them engineered to work properly with it... they are about as useful as my SiR front spoiler... esthetics only.

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"Ghetto" aerodynamic mods are pretty easy on everyday non-optimized, non-sportcar vehicles if you know what you're doing...yes, even spoilers (which usually have more of a drag-reducing effect than a downforce effect, which is still beneficial)

Originally posted by Supernaut
a) reduces pressure on the bottom of the car, thus "sucking" it down

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in addition, the faster the air travels underneath yor vehicle the more downforce you will get. This is where lowering your car helps. By lowering your car, your basically forcing air to travel faster ( it's like squeezing air from a tube) thus creating more downforce,, formula one cars are as low as possible in order to create more "df" which increase handling at high 'G' which would also give them better lap times...but too low will scratch the pavement stopping the circulation of air creating a gap, deadly at high speed, the difference in height adjustment in a formula car can make the difference between 1 and 9 place..

aerodynamics 101

Here is a pic of what I meant.
The black fins on the corners of the front bumper.

here are a couple more on civics