Cruising down the freeway last week I was stuck in bumper to bumper traffic going 70 MPH. Lo and behold the truck in front of me ran over a huge piece of tire and it decided to smack my front end and then get dragged under the car. I hear an awful grinding sound and pull over to the shoulder to investigate the noise and find out the tire piece had destroyed my ZSpeed undertray. At first I was pissed as it also punched a small hole in my front lip.

However as I limped home sounding like my car was falling apart (I even had one of our local car club members see me in transit and call to make sure everything was OK) and hoping everyone I drove past had their windows up, I had a chance to cool down. As I thought through the incident I realized that the aluminum undertray probably saved something in the engine from getting really fvcked up so my disappointment turned to gratitude that at least I had a good preventative barrier to keep that from happening. So it was back to the internet to order another Z Speed piece. Here are the before and after pictures of the tray.

 

ouch!

 

Wow, got pretty mangled. May have saved some more-expensive bits, though!

 

Damn! Glad to hear nothing else happened. Any pics of what happened to your lip?

 

Holy crap. That did a number on it! But yeah, I would much rather screw up an undertray than something else low in the engine bay like the AC compressor, Alternator, oilpan, etc...

 

I cant belive how bad that tore up the tray..

 

+1, i once had a piece of sod fall off a truck that completely tore up my front and ripped the plastic stock underpiece apart. Since i got the aluminum piece, no problems yet! knock on wood...

 

My car came without one. looks like the old one was ripped out by some road debris. Did you ride without one for any period? If so did getting the aluminum one make any difference with wind noise or anything?

 

I wouldn't recommend going without one because of situations exactly like the OP's.

You might try shooting a PM to tollboothwilley.

 

Not yet but I'll snap a couple today. The impact punched a small square shaped hole but the poly is still there so I just kinda pushed it back into place for now.

Amen brother. That's why I ran to the web to order another. I also feel that if I had a fiberglass bumper it would have been in pieces at this point. Maybe I should consider an aftermarket trunk at this point and steer away from the FG bumpers.

I'm currently running w/o one but I have another on the way. I wouldn't go w/o one and I like the aluminum pieces a lot better than stock.

That's a good idea as well.

 

PM'ed him. Thanks for the info!

 

Yikes!! Maybe its time I should consider one..great invenstment in my eyes..as long as its replaceable and ur all in one piece..its all good..

 

Seems like it might be.. Im not sure how they mount but I know a lot of the mounting holes are ripped out of my bumper from where the original one got yanked out

 

interested in selling the old one??? I think I can fix it.

 

Hey Tim how thick is the metal on the mangled undertray? Maybe we can still do something with it? Bring it by my house later if you have time. Sorry Kuneff I'm not trying to steal your thunder, but I have to try and help out a fellow friend.