Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
For most vehicles I prefer them with rear spoilers, especially on the earlier generation Chevrolet Camaro's/Pontiac Firebird's, fox body Mustang's and sporty vehicles.
I personally thought the spoiler looked better on the Firebird than the Camaro as far as the 3rd generation models go, as for the fox body Mustang's I liked the notchback coupes from the 1979-86 run better and the hatchback's from the 1987-93 run.
Here's another example of a rear spoiler that I like.
For most cars, the spoiler or rear wing is an aid in controlling airflow to keep the boundary layer attached all the way to the back of the car, and is designed to work at typical highway speeds. For some, the rear spoiler is there to homologate it for racing use (the Subaru WRX STI and Mitsubishi Evo come to mind).
Since racing cars often sprout wings for cornering downforce, I've found that I like them on performance minded street cars when properly designed. In fact, this works even on FWD cars that get "light" in the rear under braking when entering a corner, I can make a FWD car faster around a corner with a wing and no increase in HP. For example, a stock Civic will understeer as a FWD car. By increasing the rear sway bar size or rear spring rates, you can get it to rotate much better and turn in much sharper, but at higher speeds, that means nasty oversteer that is harder to control. So you add a wing. The rear wing doesn't slow the car down in low speed corners where the suspension allows it to rotate and turn very well, but then at higher speeds, where the suspension would make the car oversteer, the wing enters the picture and keeps the rear end planted allowing for higher cornering speeds on the longer sweepers. This can reduce lap times, without making the car any more powerful.
Something else to remember, the slower the speed the wing is intended to work at, the larger it needs to be in relation to the object it is attached to. A Piper Cub can fly at 25 mph... Which is why wings that are intended to keep a car planted in 45-65 mph corners are quite large. High speed stability and straight line traction are for drag cars. Road race cars need stability even at lower speed cornering. And street cars that are used in a spirited manner need lower speed stability (for, like, taking freeway onramps and cloverleafs without sliding...).
Have to say love the 87-93 Notchback 5.0 Mustangs and the 1985-1990 IROC-Z Camaro with the deckled rear lip spoiler over the 1991-1992 Z28 spoiler.although the 2001-2002 Trans-Am WS6 kind of over did scoops and spoilers IMO
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,585 posts, read 81,225,683 times
Reputation: 57822
Unless you really have the power to lose traction at high speed, they are useless, and as silly as having a 200mph speedometer on a Honda Civic. Now this (1970 Superbird) one was a bit extreme but was effective and got banned from racing due to unfair advantage.
I often get good laughs at four door small cars with a wing on the back. I imagine it provides some good drag and would make the engineers cringe thinking about how it's killing the cars aerodynamics and milage.
I don't think anyone on the road goes fast enough for a wing of any kind to do anything.
For most vehicles I prefer them with rear spoilers, especially on the earlier generation Chevrolet Camaro's/Pontiac Firebird's, fox body Mustang's and sporty vehicles.
Depends.
Compare a 2nd generation Trans Am vs Firebird and the rear spoiler looks quite nice.
Compare a last gen GTO with and without factory rear deck spoiler and it looks better without it.
Compare a 1969-1970 Mustang Mach I with and without factory rear deck spoiler and they both look nice.
It depends on the car, some look good with it and others look better without it. But it have to be factory designed for me, it have to look like it was meant for the car and not some poorly done add on that's not convincing. But, on a few rare occasions, I have seen some after market spoilers that were nicely done.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
