[Norm]

Serves to channel the air around your front wheels, but might make no MPG difference under a 100 MPH. Without it, could reduce your top end by two/three MPH. May effect high speed front end lift by a percent or two.

The issue is, does one care about these magnitudes of things?

However, to me does serve one very useful function, and that it is a "sound alert" of diminishing ground clearance. It wears well (if it isn't ripped off), lasting on my C6 Z for nine years, looking very good when I traded it in.

I like that, kind of a forward telltale.

 

[dwward]

The owners manual makes it clear that it is designed to scrape or maybe more accurately, survive scraping. If your only complaint is that the scraping worries you, you now know the scraping is normal and harmless. Leave it be and carry on.

 

[TNSQUIRE]

The owners manual makes it clear that it is designed to scrape or maybe more accurately, survive scraping. If your only complaint is that the scraping worries you, you now know the scraping is normal and harmless. Leave it be and carry on.

Unfortunately mine has not survived the daily scraping. I baby it through dips, speedbumps and my driveway. Two of the pieces still separated and we're hanging down.

 

[dpmdc]

Jabroc is a good idea but you are decreasing clearance. It's cheap enough and wears well though. Another option is Delrin.

Has anyone thought about use Jabroc in these areas? F1 and NASCAR guys use that wood based sacrificial material.

 

[JimLill]

Jabroc is a good idea but you are decreasing clearance. It's cheap enough and wears well though. Another option is Delrin.

I was thinking about the use of Jabroc or some rub stuff on those "Shark Teeth" as the link called them.

 

[Jerry U]

What's that hanging down under the front nose? An air dam? It scrapes on almost every driveway I drive in. I go slow and come in at an angle but still hear it scrape. Can you remove it? What purpose does it have? Has anyone removed it?

It's an air dam as others have mentioned. The air dam reduces drag at highway speeds and provides better gas mileage. It is not only effective at Bonneville Speeds! The Chevy Volt has a low one to improve the range of this all electric car that cannot travel at very high speeds! Quoting GM: “With the Air Dam the Chevy Volt has one of the lowest front end ground clearances of any production automobile – as low as some Corvettes and other sports cars. … the main purpose for the Volt is to decrease drag while at highways speeds, thus increasing your overall battery range.”
How much it effects the Vette's gas mileage, no direct data, but for every day driving it is no doubt more effective than the 1st to 4th shift, that seldom activates!
I recall years ago adding an air dam and rear spoiler to my 1974 260Z. The front air dam was added to offset the extra rear downforce, and to reduce drag. When I destroyed the fiberglass air dam on a curb and removed it, while waiting for a new one to arrive and be painted, the front end felt significantly lighter and less stable above about 60 mph.
If you don’t like the looks of the air dam, remove it but don’t justify it by saying you’re not going to Bonneville!

 

[cucumber1949]

I subscribe to the theory they are more a warning device on the street for me. You quickly learn what will scrape and what won't beforehand by using the old eyeball. If you run on the track they take on an entirely different role. Also, if you're hitting the lower radiator supports, the dams won't do much for you either way - that's a severe dip in the road or hitting a curb when parking.

I have the air dams on the C5 and C6, and will keep them on the C7. On the C5, I bought the car in 2011 and replaced them immediately as they looked like the originals and were looking a bit ragged on the bottom. Took a few minutes and were about $25 per side. You can take steps to minimize scraping ( slow when going up and down curbs, back into driveways, high angle turns, avoid high speed bumps). As mentioned above, if you do scrape a little bit of 220 snadpaper will smooth out the lower edge of the dam and they will look like new.

On the C6, I turn the MSRC up a little to stiffen the ride on roads that look like they are prone to dips which helps a lot. These still look new. Haven't got enough mlles on the C7 yet to see if they scrape in the same places the other two would, but it appears that those dams are just a bit higher off the ground.

I seem to recall somewhere a while back reading a thread that someone trimmed them nearly an inch or so for more ground clearance but would still scrape on those more extreme situations as a warning. Might be a compromise if you don't track the car.

 

[Jerry U]

I subscribe to the theory they are more a warning device on the street for me. You quickly learn what will scrape and what won't beforehand by using the old eyeball. If you run on the track they take on an entirely different role. Also, if you're hitting the lower radiator supports, the dams won't do much for you either way - that's a severe dip in the road or hitting a curb when parking.

I have the air dams on the C5 and C6, and will keep them on the C7. On the C5, I bought the car in 2011 and replaced them immediately as they looked like the originals and were looking a bit ragged on the bottom. Took a few minutes and were about $25 per side. You can take steps to minimize scraping ( slow when going up and down curbs, back into driveways, high angle turns, avoid high speed bumps). As mentioned above, if you do scrape a little bit of 220 snadpaper will smooth out the lower edge of the dam and they will look like new.

I seem to recall somewhere a while back reading a thread that someone trimmed them nearly an inch or so for more ground clearance but would still scrape on those more extreme situations as a warning. Might be a compromise if you don't track the car.

Removing 1 inch makes a good case for Fangs! See my post 12! If that hits the next thing to hit will be the aluminum "Skid Pads!"
On my C6 (which was yellow when you look at the pics) I also would hear the scraping of the air dam fairly often. As you said it just takes sand paper to smooth the edge occationally. One spot it occured was a FedEx parking lot I visit frequently that has a big dip coming in from the road. With the C6 I just crawled at an angle and only the air dam scraped. One day I was pulling in and a person coming up the road was traveling fast-could see them in my mirror just before I turned. To avoid this person hitting, I pulled in fast! The “skid pads” scraped! That metal to metal noise is far worse than the air dam and I was lucky and only scrapped the paint and slightly dented the “skid pad.” I felt the front lift slightly! Because of that incident I made a skid pad protector from aluminum, see pic. It happened a few other times when I was not expecting a dip I passed over was that bad!
When I got my C7 in October 2013 I bought one of the first "Fangs" available for the C7 (again see my post #12.) It is an easy install, much easier than my home made aluminum devise and has been on the car for over a year. Good insurance. If you damage the aluminum skid pad, it is not inexpensive to replace, especially if you need a dealer install (see bottom pic below!)