turbo4racing

me and my friend are arguing this. I know what spoilers do for rear wheel drive cars, but he says theyre good for front wheel drive too. i say they dont do **** for front wheel drive. whats the truth

Eee Pee

They do the same **** on a front wheel drive as they do a rear wheel drive.
Downforce. Technically speaking.

turbo4racing

but dont they put downforce on the rear wheels, doing nothing for the front?

Eee Pee

Well yeah. But mention a front *spoiler* (splitter).
That's downforce for the front.
Or canards too.

turbo4racing

im talking just the spoilers on the trunks

Ya@inlinePRO

i would like to know to. i figure the rear of the front engine/fwd cars are so light, downforce on the rear would just help keep the car stable at highspeeds. right? wrong?

also you might want to ask this in the roadracing forum.

allmtr

only if your going 120 mph and over for a long period of time, then yeah, your car is sturdier. but other than that, why would u want downforce in the back on a front wheel drive car.

now these will do more for your car

Eee Pee

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by kwik2nec &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">also you might want to ask this in the roadracing forum.</TD></TR></TABLE>
You should search around a lot before you do that.

Nonetheless, downforce is often a good thing.

4door_gsr_ftw

Since all the weight is on the front wheels (engine, transaxle, etc.) its good to have the downforce in the rear. That way your *** won't lift. Thats if you go fast, then its functional. If your are a rice boy (insert "girl" if applies) that drives around the city and has one of those hge aluminum wings for "downforce" then it does nothing.

B16b2b

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by kwik2nec &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i would like to know to. i figure the rear of the front engine/fwd cars are so light, downforce on the rear would just help keep the car stable at highspeeds. right? wrong?
</TD></TR></TABLE>

i would say it helps. think about it.....if your car is flat out gettin it, all the weight has shifted to the rear of the car, so they're [rears of fwd cars] not all that light under full-out acceleration. i would certainly like to think that a spoiler would keep the rear of the car planted solidly on the road surface.

i doubt a stock spoiler would be beneficial in the least until speeds of 115+mph....

hanson said

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by allmtr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> why would u want downforce in the back on a front wheel drive car. </TD></TR></TABLE>

so it sticks to the ground better?!?!?!!?!

downforce is not specific to drive wheels. you use all 4 wheels to grip the road, so you want all 4 wheels to have the best grip possible.

Kamin

ill keep this short

on a street car its completley pointless.

on a RACE car (meaning road racing) it has a function. hondas/acuras dont have very good high speed stability (+110) so taking a fast turn is having the back end on ice.

why? too much air is going under the car. on a LOWER END race car (anything not reacing speeds over 150mph) the same effect of a spoiler can be accomplished by using a front splitter. it redirects air away form under the car, giving it less of a wing effect at high speeds.

pdiggitydogg

how many people actually have front canards? just curious

hanson said

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by pdiggitydogg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">how many people actually have front canards? just curious</TD></TR></TABLE>

i don't really know of any sanctioned races that a honda can participate in that allow canards.

pdiggitydogg

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hanson said &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
i don't really know of any sanctioned races that a honda can participate in that allow canards.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

I meant on street, privately owned cars

nerdsports

i had a duckbill on my hatchback, and honestly when i removed it for about a week, at highway speeds (around 80mph) the car felt less stable. when i put it back on it felt a lot better!!!! so i would say it helps keep a car more stable.

i have a home depot lip but that doesnt do **** b/c well, its soft so it prolly folds at high speeds. a properly built functional air dam should help along with a splitter and canards.....

mugensport9

think downforce on the rear, while taking weight off the front where it is already hard to get traction. i think this would do the most damage going into 2nd and 3rd gear when racing because your fast enough to have the spoiler put weight on the back and it helps to make u spin uneccesarily when going into those gears

hatchback19

It's just as important to keep your rear tires on the ground as your front.

Outrun

Depends on the design, but a FWD car can benefit from a rear spoiler. Just because the rears aren't driven doesn't mean it can use more downforce (this is regarding race cars as seen below).


For street cars, simple spoilers/wings are there for either aesthetics or to reduce rear lift and/or drag. They can also add downforce, though the chords of most wings won't do much at low speeds.

tim anto

so how does a 4 foot wing have an advantage over a smaller one?

*note*i dunno what sizes wings come in...i guessed 4foot cuz the ones i see on poop cars are higher than the roof...poop cars meaning ones that the wings serves no function... *

743 Stunna

rear spoilers are beneficial to any car, ff, fr, mr, yadda yadda. You'd need a pretty big one to notice a difference at low speed, but at higher speed turns (which you should not be doing on public roads anyway) the effect of a rear spoiler will be noticable. Aerodynamics is a tricky subject. You can't just slap a wing on and expect everything to work right. You should definitely do more research on this topic, and tell your friend he's right, rear spoilers help on FF.

Si Arn

one might think that since all the weight is in the front that a spoiler may help an FWD car.

B16b2b

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tim anto &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">so how does a 4 foot wing have an advantage over a smaller one?
</TD></TR></TABLE>

possibly. i think the bigger factor is the slope on the wing. front end height off the bumper, compared to the rear height of the wing off the bumper. the more slant in the wing, the more it will allow the car to be pushed down by the force of oncoming air. within reason.... i mean a 80 degree slant probably isn't as efficient as a 45 degree, u know?

Outrun

Chord and shape combined with angle of attack and placement of wing are all important design elements. Sometimes, less angle produces more downforce (trimming a car) because less drag allows the car to have a higher top speed. Since aero forces increase exponentially, the higher top speed produces more downforce even though the wing angle is less.

RiceNmotioN

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Outrun &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Depends on the design, but a FWD car can benefit from a rear spoiler. Just because the rears aren't driven doesn't mean it can use more downforce (this is regarding race cars as seen below).


For street cars, simple spoilers/wings are there for either aesthetics or to reduce rear lift and/or drag. They can also add downforce, though the chords of most wings won't do much at low speeds.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Yup. It's more of a stability issue than anything. It's also about balancing the car's front/rear. When adding a deep front lip you will generally have higher than usual rear lift and lose traction. A spoiler adds equalibrium. Notice how deep that Civic's front lip is. The rear is just to balance it. Large wings aren't really needed unless a large lip is in place.