Topic

What are peoples thoughts on spoilers / rear wings??

Im talkin about "fast and furious " style rear wings fitted to an f or tf .

would you fit one?? Have you fitted one??
Benefits?? Pros and cons??

Im curious obviously its a mid engined, rear wheel drive so not pointless as it would be fitting to a front drive car . I seen a few pictures of tfs with them fitted and some look.quite good

opinions please

haven't made my mind up if I shoud fit a spoiler to my tf..........my zr looked better than a rover 25 because it had one..........there only cosmetic anyway ..........you cant get much speed up anywhere these days to create any downforce unless you went to a track ............and I think if they fell off you wouldn't notice the difference

I don't have either but people who have fitted a front spoiler in particular claim that they are a great improvement on high speed straight line stability.

I don't tend to drive above 70mph anyway and must say that I don't notice a problem with stability at that speed.

Can look nice though

a mate of mine many years ago fitted a front spoiler to a mini along with a go faster bonnet scoop and grey primer coating.........wow I said has I got in is it fast............he replied watch this................two miles down the road we went through a rounabout and I meen through it.............yes the brakes had failed...........we were told later by a mechanic the spoiler had no vents up front and stoped the brakes from cooling.....they got hot and couldn't cope ....................the spoiler was torn off at the roundabout and he never fitted another

The trouble with rear areodynamic aids on a convertable is that the airflow to them will vary greatly depending on weather the roof is up or not, even having the side windows up or down with the roof down will vary the airflow even more.
The result will be it will only work properly in one mode (if it works at all, most likely not!) and if it does work in one mode then the handling will be different in the others.
The wing would have to be mounted up high in the airstream above the roof line to get clean air, to be of any real use in providing consistant down force regardless of the position of the roof and it would also need to have a proper wing cross section and be set at the appropriate angle of attack.

Generally the average bits of tat stuck on the bootlids of many a car are add on rubbish for would be boyracers who wish to give the impression that they know what they're doing, When the reality is that they only display their ignorance of aerodynamics.
In fact most that I see on the back of cars don't even have a wing cross section so would only provide drag without the benifit on downforce and they usually make it harder to see what's behind.
Another point when a totaly uncool piece of automotive white goods like a Toyota Camary gets so called sporty stuff OEM, the the aformentioned sporty stuff can no longer be cool, as the beige cardigan wearers take over!

Lips and spoilers may give some areodynamic benefits but again the roof position will effect this and without a wind tunnel to quantify the results are more likely to be a waste of time money and effort.
Though apparently the TF boot lid with it's extended lip is supposed to be better that the shorter F bootlid, at least it's a cheap and easy mod for an F.

Front splitters are of a lot more use on a convertable as the airflow is always the same.

what about the issue of insurance,,does the price of policy rise because you've added one? :-?like the idea of perhaps a splitter and a trophy rear spoiler...

You would have to ask the company or brokers involved. I added a K&H splitter to "Blue 33" and brokers informed whom notified the underwriters of policy and it made no difference. I have notified them of each and every addition or modification even cosmetic ones like the changes in the solour of the centre tunnel in the cockpit and change of wheel style to 5 spoke VVC 15" rims. if the worst you ever happen they cannot wiggle out by sayign they didn't know.