I'm by no means an aerodynamicist(sp?) but it most likely deflects most of the air that would otherwise travel into the wheel wells causing turbulence and instability in the front end at speeds where wind resistance is significant.

 

nightfish,
YOU DO NOT KNOW MORE THAN HONDA!!!!!!!
SO STOP ALREADY!!!!!!!

 

I have $100 that says nobody on this forum can feel the difference in a controlled test. I'll take the strakes on and off your car, we'll do 4 driving stints, 2 with strakes and 2 without. Get all 4 correct and you win. Get it wrong and you pay me $100.

I guess these cars didn't go through enough aerodynamic testing to determine that they needed 2" of plastic in front of the tires.

 

I'm not sure, but the strakes act as spoilers directly in front of the tires, so my guess would be that the lower the car is, the better they'll work, right up to the point where they are scraping on the pavement. My car is dropped an inch in the back, and just over an inch in the front, and the car is less stable without the strakes at very high speeds, but I don't think it's anything you'd be likely to notice in normal street use.

The things are very easy to remove and replace, so why not drive with and without the strakes and see whether or not you notice any difference.

 

As long as we have room to get up to at least 140 MPH, I'll take your bet.

 

Those cars also have lots of undertray bits that the S2000 doesn't have. Could be that with their configurations, tire strakes like that would actually hurt aerodynamics.

 

[QUOTE=2slow,May 20 2008, 06:38 PM] I don't know if I'd call sparrow a turkey.

 

 

Short story.

Had my front pass fender replaced a month ago and when I got the car back from the body shop that small wind deflector thingy was missing on the passenger side. I guess they lost or misplaced it and didn't notice when they put the inner lining back together. Any who, I drove the car home with one on and one off and at speed (50 mph and above) the front end was pulling hard to the right. In the driveway at home I noticed it was missing. On the way back to the body shop the next day it rained and driving highway speed on a wet surface was fricken nuts. The car was pulling bad and after every pump or seam in the road it was much much worse. It was just plain unsafe. The body shop replaced the missing piece and did a front end alignment for me and problem was solved. They said they made only a minor adjustment to the alignment but I didn't request a before and after printout. I always though it was an alignment issue but now I'm not so sure.

I finfd it hard to believe that one little flimsy plastic deflector could make such a big difference but with past experience in aerospace engineering (more specifically wind tunnel testing on small scale airplanes back in college) I know very small differences in symetry can make a big difference.

Again, no factual info here. Just sharing my personal experience that was probably due to allignment issue (maybe ). Anyone want to conduct a field test with one off and one on? On second thought, thats probably a bad idea.

 

Went back to the dealer to get a spare key made and told them that I was missing the front strakes. They are ordering me up a set and shipping it to my house free of charge!!!!!! This is the nicest thing a dealer has ever done for me.