When designing and crafting a brand new carbon kit, the most important element is undeniably the front splitter. The front lip is considered 'the face' and can often make or break a kit. For a front splitter to work, it must offer cohesion with the vehicle's factory design.
As a BMW G8X owner, you can tell your front splitter is good when seeing a car without it makes it seem incomplete and 'naked'. That's how we feel when we see a stock G80 M3 or G82 M4 out in the wild.
Why Is It Called The SP1?
The 'SP' in the name denotes the 'SPlitter' element and the '1' signifies that the SP1 was the first retail carbon fibre front splitter on the market for the G8X platform.
Design Philosophy
The goal with the SP1 was to design a front lip that was timeless. As we've touched on many times, the G8X's front end has been a major point of controversy. Unlike the BMW M Performance carbon lip, the SP1 extends far outwards, allowing the large kidney grilles to sit back a bit further and not be so dominant over the OEM front bumper.
The SP1 gives the front bumper a smoother line, disguising the awkward gloss black OEM front corners. With an SP1 fitted, the G8X seems to grow up a bit.
You may notice the very subtle lines flowing back towards the inlet ducts. We implemented this design feature to break up the large upper surface area, as well as to connect the lip to our twin fin carbon front ducts.
OEM-Matching Carbon Weave
With many BMW G80 M3s and G82 M4s coming out of the factory with carbon fibre optional extras, it was crucial for us to use an OEM-specification carbon weave with a matching pattern and direction. This allows the SP1 to integrate seamlessly with any M Performance carbon your vehicle may have.
Quality & Durability
This is an area we have always prided ourselves on. If we wanted the SK1 side skirts to look good in 25 years time, they would need to last 25 years. We go to great lengths to ensure every single set is absolutely flawless in strength, fit and finish.
This begins in the design process where we take multiple cars in for 3D scanning that allows us to replicate the OEM front bumper in our specialised CAD software. From these digital images, we brought the SK1 concept drawings to life, securing the necessary dimensions. This data is used to create a unique aluminium mould where the dry carbon fibre sheets will be laid. Aluminium moulds are significantly more expensive than the alternatives, costing tens of thousands of pounds to develop, however they deliver far superior quality and much tighter tolerances.
Despite this, not every piece that comes out the mould is without fault. Whilst under extreme heat to cure, imperfections can arise. These sets are highlighted and discarded during the first stage of our quality control (QC1). Faults can include any flaws within the pre-preg carbon weave or distortion.
Even with a perfect initial base, laquer could be applied unevenly or, if low-quality, could react poorly with the air (QC2). We use a specially-developed laquer engineered specifically for coating carbon fibre to provide the best results. It provides incredible gloss and is heavily resistant to UV rays, as well as corrosion.
The final stage of quality control includes scratch testing samples from the batch, test-fitting and polishing to make sure the set is something we're proud to put our name on.
This is why the price is what it is. It may seem like a huge investment but we manage to keep it far below the price of BMW's M Performance front splitter and many other competitors'.
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