wspr22

I can not understand why people put a wing on their car. I'll give you a reason why people should. The rear wing creates downforce and helps control major oversteering. Thus with the front wheel drive you are trying to get rid of the understeer and get the car to neutral. So if you want to turn better get rid of the wing. Examples ...look at Pete Cunningham's Real Time Integra Type-R (leader in the Tourning Division) no wing. Now when do you put a wing on your car???

Get a 906 and then come and talk about oversteer


I hope this helps. It makes me sad to see a honda with a wing and then the driver tells me it helps them turn. Mentally perhaps.


wspr

jaje

most wings on the market are not purposefully designed for downforce...except on porsches or some other more expensive sports cars

most of the reason why rear wing spoilers are added to cars is for looks...they do nothing except create drag reducing top speed and highway gas mileage

i'll admit some cars look better with spoilers and its just a matter of opinion on that subject anyway

CivicSiRacer

RTR Type Rs have wings on them last I looked. Theirs are on their for high speed balance. Cars get squirrely due to lift.

As a matter of fact all the cars in the World Challenge have wings even Roger Foos Protege5 wagon.

PBCrunch

Some spoilers act to reduce turbulence behind the vehicle.

Fujiwara Takumi

you raise a good point

and also if you look at the design of the CTR wing, in some respects its creating a bit of lift, as air passes over it and swirls around the back it will push down on the front of the car.

1stGenCRXer

I'm no fan of wings on a FWD car, however, low wings and spoilers do serve a purpose at high speed, and I don't care what kind of car you drive. The way cars are designed, they inherently look like a mis-shaped airplane wing going through the air backwards, with a flat bottom and a pointed nose. Up to speeds of around 90 mph, this shape helps driveability, the steering wheels maintain grip, and heavy steering input at those speeds is not required, which is why you can change lanes at highway speed with less than 30 degrees of steering wheel rotation. However, above those speeds the downforce on the front of the car becomes higher than the those forces found in the rear of the car, mainly caused by the turbulence created as the air suddenly has no surface to be guided by and act upon. This turbulence is what keeps an airplane airborne, it's called lift. So, again, no matter what kind of car you have, at those high speeds, something needs to be done to cancel out the lift created by the natural shape of the car [sedan, coupe, hatchback, roadster, doesn't matter], and this is where spoilers and wings come into play. A spoiler just acts to move the turbulence point to a place directly behind the car, where it will still create drag, but not lift, whereas a wing seeks to create a turbulence point [turbulence is used to refer to a low pressure region if you haven't picked up on that already] under the wing elements, to either cancel or exceed the force of the natural low pressure region on the car body. This keeps more weight on the rear of the car and keeps the car, any car, from oversteering at high speed. A prime example of this would be the Audi TT and the VW New Beetle. Both of these cars were originally released free of aero devices, until unstability at auto bahn speeds where discovered and both companies issued a recall to install a spoiler free of charge to eliminate this potentially dangerous threat to their customers at such risk.

So what's all this mean to Joe RiceBoy? Not a thing, most factory spoilers have no noticable effect on aerodynamic handling until about 65 mph, and most aftermarket wings have no real effect until about 85 mph [unless he's got it adjusted to maximum rake, at which point he starts killing HP with drag at 15mph...], and so have absolutely negligable effect on medium/low speed cornering.

As far as race cars go, the choice to run a wing or not greatly depends on driver ability and preference, straightaway speed importance and the stock handling characteristics of a particular body style.

Should everyone go out and buy a wing? No, it's your money. Should I bash every street running FWD for having one? No, it gives me a place to set my drink. Should you re-evaluate their use a little? Yes, wings on stock-bodied race cars are not for turning help [except nascar, but they use tape on the front to adjust balance as well, not really an option in other series where they use real, honest OEM bumpers...], they're for straight-line stability.

slow_civic

i'd be more than willing to bet a spoiler would help my hatch at 130+. however.. i think a front air dam would be more effective at keeping the car steady, i.e. sheetmetal riveted to the bottom of the lip. i see more track cars with these than i do with wings.

1stGenCRXer

A front air dam is more responsible for car balance than stability since it cuts the amount of air travelling under the car and instead forces the other aerodynamic devices on the car to serve their intended purpose. In all fairness, if you have one you should have the other, even if it is a fairly minor addition, if you want total stability and downforce for corner turn-in.

white_n_slow

I could tell the spoiler on my old supra was doing something (I drove with it both off and on), but couldn't really notice anything until I was going over 70-75. It made a huge difference at 130 tho (god, I was stupid when I was younger)

D16ROCKET

I am surprised that nobody has tried to market a Civic bolt on under-carriage windage tray yet. You know, a big ass plate that bolts to the bottom of your car and lets next to zero turbulence develop under the car. If it works for Michael Schumacher, why not for a Honda Civic.

(That last line is a joke by the way..........kinda)