by RomanV » Fri May 19, 2006 4:25 pm
Spoiler =! wing.
Spoiler = An aerodynamic aid, to reduce the coefficent of drag of the vehicle (Makes the air seperate more cleanly at the rear of the vehicle, making it more 'slippery'... reduces aerodynamic drag)
Has benefits of decreased fuel consumption, higher top speed, etc.
(In theory... and only if you're hauling. in reality, at sensible speeds, it does SFA)
wing = A 'wing' is something used to create downforce. It makes the car less 'slippery', increasing it's coefficient of drag. However tradeoff is that it sticks the car to the road.
eg. (IIRC) An ST202 GT4 spoiler generates 30kgs of downforce at 120kph.
A formula one car could theoretically drive upsidedown on the roof of something past a certain speed, as it generates enough downforce to suck it to the roof!
And as to the benefits of a 'wing' on a FWD car.
One of the best uses that I've heard for a wing, have been on a FWD.
(I think it was someone from here, with a track car?)
Due to the natural understeering nature of a FWD, at low/medium speed corners, you want the car to be a bit oversteery, so you can power it through the corners.
However at high speed, understeer isnt such an issue, you want to distribute the workload evenly over all four tires, and have some stability/predictability.
However obviously, these two setups contradict each other.
The solution was using the suspension set for low speed stuff, and adding a spoiler to the rear.
Adding the wing made the car effectively adds weight to the rear of your car, as speed increases.
So it did nothing at low speeds when you want the rear to get a bit loose, but at high speeds, it effectively shifted the weight balance of the car towards the rear, and distributed the workload of the tires more evenly as well.
Last edited by
RomanV on Fri May 19, 2006 4:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.