Anders, are you sure that the plate should cover the fuel tank ? I have an old illustration from a sales brochure in my mind. Of course that is now 30 years ago, but i´m pretty sure that there was written it should create a little vacuum by high speed to get the hot air faster out off the engine-room. And in cause only the german Autobahn was without speed-limit they made it only for the german cars.
Hilsen
Kai
Interesting. I find it a little hard to beleive though, as the plate is mounted under the car in front of the engine, so it shouldn't affect suction of air out of the engine room.
Suction of air from the engine room is driven by the rear end of the car: The two air channels under the trunk exiting in the rear bumper. This is actually a very clever design since there's a considerable vacuum in that area (depending on speed of course), and even more so on the Murena S with it's large rear spoiler. It's a nice engine (and especially exhaust) cooling design and obviously one that was inspired by Matras race cars.
Theoretically, the plate could create a bit of flat bottom ground effect aero increasing downforce slightly. If that was the case, the location near the middle of the car would make some sense. I'm still skeptical, since with the relatively small size of the plate and the large ride height of the car, I doubt if any flat botton effect would be measurable.
The rear spoiler as fitted on the Murena S is very effective though. It's size means a considerable increase in downforce on the rear, probably significatly increasing rear end stability around the top speed of 200 km/h.
/Anders
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