Wylde said:
That wing makes me want to
It does not belong on a street car and I wish the fools who put it on 4 and 6 cylinder cars would learn that it only shows their low IQ when they do put one on.
Dude, it's a track car. It's not a fashion statement.
As far as the wings on fwd cars go, I'll agree that most are there only for cosmetics and therefore qualify as "rice," I'll post here my reply to a similar comment on a different board...
"Almost all cars this side of a Ferrari Enzo produce lift at speed; even highway speeds. The basic shape of a car is a wing, ie the air has further to travel over the top than the bottom. It's Bernoulli's Principle, and it keeps 747s in the air.
Now, as far as spoilers go, there are "spoilers" and "wings," although the terms are generally used interchangeably. A wing is an inverted airfoil that will produce some measure of downforce. Sometimes this will exceed the amount of lift produced by the car's body, but usually, because of the drag penalty incurred by such a design, they merely serve to reduce it somewhat.
A spoiler is used to delay the delaminization of the air flow over the car to reduce the coefficient of drag. Samples of these are the little lips on the back of the new BMW M series or the Jag XKR, where they were added because the hot air from the hood vents caused the air flow to seperate earlier.
Now, unless you're in a Top Fuel drag car, it doesn't matter that what wheels are being driven. Lift is always bad for handling, though, even at more moderate speeds. Because of a car's basic shape, lift is much more pronounced in the rear. It won't really matter at even autocross speeds, and the penalty for downforce is drag (and by consequence, top speed and fuel economy), but there is a very real reson why even front drive touring cars carry wings (or if they are not allowed, would like to).
Like I said, on a daily driver, pick one you like the looks of. Unless you're planning extensive lapping at Lime Rock or Sebring, it won't make much of a difference."