I know they didn't have any of the foamy aero, but what about the aluminum pan? Anyone have a real unmolested one to reference? Just to satisfy my curiosity haha

 

My friend just picked up a low mile 10th anniversary (~40k miles I think) that is completely stock and the cleanest 2nd gen I have ever seen in person.

I checked under its skirt and was surprised to see the aluminum pan still attached to the subframe.

Caveat, it is a Canadian car. But looked identical to a US 10th to me.

First time I had seen headlight cleaning squirters on a 2nd gen.

 

Yes. They have the aluminum undertray.

 

whats the purpose of this tray opposed to.the plastic one it looks much smaller

Rotary > Pistons

 

It doesn't replace the plastic tray, it's in addition to it. It mounts below the oil pan.

 

it came factory on the 10th AE, yes.

purpose is underbody aerodynamics.

 

the aluminum pan came on ALL the S4 turbos, and the NA's with the aero kit

 

i do somewhat find that hard to believe, the ONLY FCs i saw with it were the 10th AEs. not a single other car ever had one still bolted on underneath, and there were plenty of well maintained examples floating around, but even some plenty beat up 10th AEs still had it.

perhaps they were supposed to have it, but they didn't get installed at the factory and simply forgot to mention it to the options/parts fiche.

 

I'm going to have to disagree with that. I've seen hundreds of turbo II's and the only ones with the aluminum pan are the ones with the optional aero kit, or 10ae's. Most turbo II's did not come with it, in my experience.

 

maybe they get lost a long the way, j9 probably worked at the dealer when those cars were new, lol

 

actually parts fische doesn't say anything about model/vin, so according to that every S4 had one!

maybe its just aero kit only?

 

Well, if 90% of owners took them off, then I guess that could be true. Most people are too lazy to get underneath their car and remove parts that appear to be part of the chassis, so I'd find it hard to believe.

I'm satisfied that it's part of the aero kit...any car with the diffusers in front of the wheels and 10ae's would have also had the aluminum pan.

 

parts fische #2, says 87 with aero parts kit, 88 turbo/10ae/GTU.

the FB43-56-112D is also newly NLA, so its now rare.

 

I do know they WON'T install to a Vert without some serious modifications. All that extra bracing gets in the way.

 

It's just an aluminum stamping with standard sheetmetal strengthening features, a pass thru for the oil plug and air vents/speed holes.

 

awesome, thanks for the info!!

I knew the aero (foam tire deflectors or "spats") on all 86-87 sports, 88 GTU, & 88 T2, how ever it didn't come on the 10 AE & I'd seen a part out of one which did have it, however, my newly aquired 10th did not.

That being said, one of my spares now has a home other than the shelf! Yippe!

Thanks all--

Landon

 

you actually installed one? i thought they were meant to just be stacked on a shelf?

 

it would be rather easy to duplicate.

i've already made a few aluminum undertrays for the RX8's.