Want more from your car, but are on a tight budget? Consider external body additions like wider bumpers, arched fenders or more pronounced spoilers. These can be bought on their own or are a part of packaged car body kits designed to enhance your car’s looks and help with performance. Body parts can be sourced as factory additions, often as part of styling or performance packages, or from dedicated aftermarket manufacturers, many with racing affiliations.
Body Kit Basics
So, what are bodykits, and how do they benefit your car? In simple terms, this is the collection of external body modifications including parts like front and rear bumpers, side skirts, spoilers, splitters and diffusers. Each part is designed with the overall vehicle profile in mind, and can be installed to provide a distinct look or aid with aerodynamics. Well-made car body kits are available in varied materials, each with a different purpose.
Why Consider a Body Kit for Your Car?
Body kits do three things well. They improve or customise the look of your car. The parts transform ordinary and mundane designs into something that actually turns heads no matter how fast you’re driving. Kits consisting of spoilers, splitters and side skirts also redirect oncoming air to reduce drag and lift, factors that hurt handling and performance. The aim is to direct air pressure downward, creating what is known as downforce. This helps stability at high speeds and in turns, and gets more grip through the tyres. Lastly, kits can also mask any accidents or dents and are a direct replacement for damaged or broken vehicle parts.
Overlooked benefits besides the higher top speeds, improved steering feel, and quicker acceleration are the reduced weight, increased strength and lower fuel use. Parts like carbon fibre bonnets, trunks and roofs shed considerable weight, something you’ll appreciated on the track, buts also when filling up, with fuel lasting longer between visits to the servo.
Common Types
Car owners have the choice of going with different bodykits when achieving different aims. Lip kits are a popular option installed at the front of the car and consist of revised spoilers and splitters to directly deal with oncoming air. Splitters force high-pressure over the car to increase downforce while limiting air pressure under the car, thereby helping with traction and stability. The parts are combined with spoilers to ‘spoil’ or remove unwanted air movements left and right, again reducing instanced of establishing turbulence or pooling air causing lift. Lip kits paired with side skirts, rear diffusers and rear spoiler or wings turn into full ‘aero’ body kits, and redirect remnant air from the front of the vehicle. Rear spoilers, for instance, increase downforce and stability on the rear axle, reduce body roll, and keep the the car composed in turns. Skirts limit lift from pooling air between the wheel arches and diffusers ‘diffuse’ remnant low-pressure air at the rear. All parts work together for a more pleasurable driving experience, with improved performance the main goal.
If you’re more about looks, then bumper kits might be the better option. These consist of wider and lower front and rear aftermarket bumpers. They’re often paired with protruding side skirts for a complete look. Wide-body kits play to the same tune, mimicking the wider stance seen in race cars with wider wheel flares and pronounced front (and rear) spoilers. The additional space means room for other performance upgrades, such as tyre and wheel combinations for even more traction, or big brake kits with bigger rotors for improved stopping power. Most drivers also swap out the stock suspension for coilovers or lowering springs to change the centre of gravity or get a more aggressive, slammed look closer to the ground.
Choosing Kits in the Right Materials
Exterior car parts are subjected to impact, high heat and stresses when dispersing air at speed. Here materials are the make or break factor. These determine overall strength, flexibility, whether parts can be repaired and their overall price.
Fibreglass is a good choice for wide-body and bumper kits, with decent strength preventing scratches and dents in minor accidents. Fibreglass body kit also lasts well in heat and high UV radiation, is relatively easy to repair and one of the cheapest options. Downsides are the low flexibility and inherent brittleness, meaning parts will crack or break when scraping road surfaces or curbing fenders, flares and side skirts.
Step up to polyurethane exterior body parts for a balanced mix of durability and flexibility. These better cope with direct impact, especially in lowered cars used on the track. A minor gripe is the added weight, but this is offset with the low purchase price. For warmer and humid climates, consider body kit parts in reinforced ABS plastics. These are lighter than both fibreglass and polyurethane, more resistant to heat and impact, and do better against UV rays and direct exposure to chemicals (oil, coolant, etc.) and moisture. The benefits though mean these are usually more expensive.
If money isn’t a consideration, then go with carbon fibre. The material has been used for years in racing applications in one-off vehicles ranging from F1 and V8 muscle or race-spec rally cars. Carbon fibre pairs exceptional strength with very low weight, and high flexibility able to withstand bumps, hits and direct impact. It’s also impervious to oil, chemicals and road debris and won’t fade in prolonged exposure in sunlight. Another drawcard is the stunning looks, especially in layered pre-preg carbon parts. While the strength and weight savings do mean considerably higher prices, carbon body kits should be high on your shopping list for cars producing decent factory power. And they’re the best choice in full aero kits.
When considering body kit, asses your needs, and balance this against your budget. Know what you want to achieve, and shop accordingly. Just remember, parts need to fit seamlessly with the rest of the vehicle and have sufficient strength, so don’t rule out a pro fit for the best results.
