To just comment without having the fun of the debate seems like an even bigger waste of time :)

You sure about that?

Makes sense to me. What am I missing?

:confused:

Take care,
~Chris

Well, I thought that you had to be driving at high speed to have any real downforce from a spoiler or wing for it to be effective, like 100+ mph. Not gonna happen on a street car.

Also, the wing isnt for traction, but handling at high speeds, which aint gonna happen in the first place (see above), but if it did and was functional in that regard, why would being FWD or RWD make any difference?


What am I missing? You tell me.

You have good points, Chris, I was just asking.

:)

Take care,
~Chris

Yeah, like you didnt know :)

What made sense to you about the original remarks? After all, you said it made sense to you, but I dont make any sense out of it at all.

Well, any rear spoiler would create downforce, to some degree, on the backend of the car. Downforce on the backend would create lift on the front. Lift on the front would reduce traction. Yes? No? I dunno. I do know that wheelie bars are used on FWD cars to keep the weight transfer from creating downforce on the rear of the car for this same reason, so it just made sense to me that a rear spoiler on a FWD car seemed counter productive.

Take care,
~Chris

Well, were talking about the factory or aftermarket spoilers or wings on rice mobiles.

Someone said they were functional, and that the back of a FWD is not where you need the downforce, implying to me that the downforce was for traction. If not implying that, then why would downforce on the back be bad for a FWD car and not a RWD car?

It just makes sense to me that lift on the front would never be desireable during high speeds, regardless of the drive wheels. There are ways to spoil lift on the front of the car (spoilers, for example) to prevent it. The downforce on the back to keep the rear from sliding around would be counteracted by ways to keep the front of the car down with spoilers, wouldnt it?

And it is generally known to most people who consider themselves auto enthusists that wings or spoilers, factory or aftermarket, on street cars, are for looks and styling and have no functionality at all.

And the author was referring to street cars, as that was the subject,so keep that in mind.

Well, you were a in a Nascar Pit crew, you should know more about this then most. Maybe Im way off base...

later

I admit, I was thinking more along the lines of 1/4 mile racing. Still, let me take a shot at it.

FWD cars are at an immediate disadvantage in that the downforce on their driven wheels is lessened the first second that they are put in motion. This same principal applies more downforce to the driven wheels in a RWD car. Anyway, anything that would increase the downforce on the back of a FWD car would make the driven wheels much more likely to spin, rather than grab. On a RWD, forward bite would be strengthened with a rear spoiler, but steering might become jeopardized. So, add a front air dam, which would help keep the front down, and improve steering. If you added a front air dam to a FWD car, it would certainly help, but you would still be fighting the affect of the rear spoiler. They'd be working against each other. What benefit would there be in applying even more downforce to the rear of a FWD car?

Take care,
~Chris

If were talking about high speed driving where the effects of spoilers and air dams are a factor, like high speed oval track racing, is FWD traction even an issue?

I don't know, Chris. This is making my head hurt. lol. It just seemed to me that anything that would take away from the forward downforce in a FWD car would be a bad thing, but I don't have any experience with FWD racing, so I'm just applying what knowledge I do have in what sounds right to me, but I'm probably wrong.

Now then, you want to talk about functional downforce at slower speeds, check out the wings on an Outlaw Sprint car!

:D

Take care,
~Chris

My car at speeds around 100mph squats down in the rear
I have a 91gt with a saleen fin.

But it does not do anything but look good under that speed :p

with the angle of that wing he could probably lift the front wheels off the groung at 170, lol, we should send this thread to the seller,lol