Formula-making the holes in the bumper functional

[Trans Am]

You know the holes where there are fog lights on some late formulas? mine (95) has just a piece of plastic that covers the back of it so they don t do anything..I dont know why they left them like that and it is annoying me every time I look at it
They could have made them functional , like air intake, or cooling, maybe cooling for the brakes...they look to me like a cut in the cost of the production of the car
I thought about taking the covers off to let more air to the radiator but maybe that will disturb the air flow from the air dam under the car to the air scoops in the hood ( i m not sure if I am right about this but the air flow to the cooling system must have been designed properly as these cars don t have radiator grilles so I d rather not modify that)
So i think i will put some ducts to get air to the brakes to coolthem. I am not sure whether I need to put any filters or not, to keep water and dirt off the brake discs, i know when it s raining water on hot discs wont do any good.

What do you think? any ideas and suggestions are appreciated I have to do something about it because it ticks me off , not to mention the colour and the cloth interior

[Mark B]

Unless you are doing autocross (And from what I can tell you arent) you dont need to cool your brakes. If you want to make the holes functional, you could run the ducts up to the air box. That will give you a ram air effect. But I doubt it would give you any extra hp. However, if you really want to route them to the brakes, you dont need to filter the air. Water & dirt wont harm your brakes. As soon as water gets near them, it will evaporate.

By the way... What does "not to mention the colour and the cloth interior" have to do with the holes in your bumper?

[Trans Am]

By the way... What does "not to mention the colour and the cloth interior" have to do with the holes in your bumper?

thats too many things that I dont like about that car , but the lt1 and the low mileage make up for it ...the car is green , which I think doesnt really suit the car , and the cloth seats are a lot different than the ones I was used to in the t/a (leather, infltable lateral support, adjustable headrests , a big difference) Anyway it is a great car

I think I ll go for the brake cooling, i may not do autocross, but roads over here are not as i see the are in america

[Injuneer]

I removed the plastic covers and put a black mesh screen in the front of the opening. Not sure what it accomplished. The air will not reach the radiator, because the big sheet of black plastic that comes up from the lower part of the bumper cover blocks air flow to the radiator. There not many square inches of opening to use for air flow to the engine. And the foam crash pad behind the bumper pretty much blocks you from running ducts up to the engine.

I wouldn't worry about getting water on the brakes.... happens every time it rains. But again, not much of an opening if you wanted to use it for brake ducts.

I figured the main gain would be the reduction of drag from eliminating the dead end in the tunnel that leads up to the blocked openings, and that's pure imagination, not something you could even measure.

[97LT1Z28]

You could also open the vents on the hood, cut the holes out in the front bumper and use a small amount of ducting to guide additional air-flow up from the bottom of the engine compartment to the top and out the vents. This may reduce the under-the-hood temperature. No big performance gains but it would help it run cooler in the summertime.

The Dodge Viper uses this concept . . . . .

Also, what are people's reactions to your car in Europe? I bet your car is pretty rare over there....

[Trans Am]

I ll try and open the vents in the hood, but it looks like solid metal there
The only time i noticed they are not completely closed was when the a/c compressor locked and i saw the smoke from the accesories belt coming out the vents
I dint have time to do anything yet apart from getting the ducts, when its finished I ll post the results

Yes these cars are pretty rare over here, but there is a great american car owners community , actually i am taking the formula tomorrow to an american car meeting in Cambridge
Usually people say wow its a nice car but it uses a lot of gas, its too big ,its too loud, too bad its not right hand drive, 6 liter monster and the like. most people dont know what car it is anyway. trans ams are more popular , people know them from smokey and the bandit and knight rider. i tryed to explain a few times that my car is a pontiac firebird formula but they call it trans am..i gave up now It stands out from the crowd theless ant its a big surprise to bmw owners on the road

[97LT1Z28]

Pretty cool.......