#18 – Wing
Posted on January 11, 2012 at 12:00 am by Chris
Chapter: Comic
I always get a kick out of seeing a standard sedan type car that has no modifications visible to it whatsoever apart from a giant ridiculous spoiler. Maybe the owner worked at an auto mod store and got a sweet deal on it? Maybe it’s all that was left from the previous car after a racing accident. It’s a reminder of a previous life.
Tags: alert, car, spoiler
This is the single greatest thing you’ve ever done. Congratulations, man. I applaud you.
LIMA OSCAR LIMA!
My previous car had a factory-fit but pretty much pointless spoiler on its hatch lid… it was front-wheel-drive and had an absolute Vmax of about 125mph. The wing didn’t do anything I could see other than restrict rear visibility and reduce fuel economy. But, I didn’t care much. The car was a cheap, 10-year-old stopgap and it was sometimes handy for opening the hatch when the rest of it was dirty, or resting a drinks can on when working on it.
Then I saw another one much the same but without the spoiler and realised what a ridiculous mess of a design it actually had.
With spoiler: Looked good. Sporty and well balanced. A bit like a fancy running shoe.
Without spoiler: Blobular mess.
Utterly bizarre. The wing was nothing more than a styling accessory. BUT A VERY NECESSARY ONE.
One of the funniest things I’ve seen is a little underpowered pickup with a spoiler on the tailgate.
Of course like “driving lights” (mounted low, so they must be aimed up to where they blind oncoming traffic to light up the pavement for any distance; s what a good idea /s) it’s something a teen can afford and install with a drill and wrench.
Let’s not discuss rust after they drill through the paint, primer, surface treatments and galvanization…
Racecars have spoilers because car bodies are wings; at 120+ MPH they start to have lift and the tires don’t have enough traction unless you add a spoiler. Somewhere between downward-lift wings and spoilers of the airflow over the car body to prevent lift. Just as lanes don’t fly until they hit a certain airspeed; spoilers are pointless until around 120+ MPH.