How will a wing effect my 4 door front wheel drive honda at 80 mph?

[NineTwoAccord]

hey guys, i've been following along, post by post and i just want to say thanks for the replies. this is the type of info i am looking for. i am getting the impression that a street car isnt going to find much use unless on a highway and under maybe an emergency situation. or unless i plan to drive it on the track. i'd like to get my car on sebring, occassionally they have races here and we can get on the track. thanks again!

[Sidewalk]

I think what I would do is try to find a factory spoiler from a similar car. The spoiler on a Plymouth Duster would probably have been great for my LeBaron (Don't think I needed it though). That should be a good compromise. Not huge slowing you down, not for looks, but something that has been tested in a wind tunnel before (just not on that particular car).

[ivymike1031]

Originally posted by Porsche
Not sure if it's the lift/drag ratio, but I was told that some high performance gliders have a 57:1 ratio, 57 feet over, 1 foot down!

Porsche,

The ratio you're referring to is most likely the "glide ratio," but I think that glide ratio and L/D are pretty close to the same thing, at least when talking about conditions where the plane is not accelerating:

If the plane is not accelerating, but it is flying at a slight down-angle at a steady speed, then the lift generated is equal to the weight of the plane. If the plane can move forward 57 feet (against drag) using the energy it recovers by simultaneously moving down 1 foot, then the drag force is 1/57 of the weight of the plane, and hence L/D is 57 for this condition.

Interesting...

[454Casull]

As a matter of fact, the Audi TT had be to fitted with a rear Gurney flap because of stability complaints. Mistake > _The car, however, has an AWD drivetrain.

The point still stands.

[SaabJohan]

Originally posted by 454Casull
As a matter of fact, the Audi TT had be to fitted with a rear Gurney flap because of stability complaints. The car, however, has an AWD drivetrain.

The car is available with both front wheel drive and 4 wheel drive.

[Chris]

Here is a post I made about how wings and spoilers work (mainly spoilers, though)

A spoiler can add drag (porsche 911 turbo, the 'whale tail' years).
A spoiler works on the Coanda effect. That is, air (or any gas or liquid) flows along like the surface it was on. Therefor, on a car, it goes DOWN the back, meeting the air from the bottom. This increses drag, but the air moving that way kinda (a little bit) decreases lift. Now, as far as I understand it, a spoiler causes the air to go up momentarily, flowing STRAIGT behind the car, not as much going down. This decreases drag. Now, the air UNDERNEATH the car has to come UP to the rear of the car, increasing the distance it has to travel, and therfor increasing speed and decreasing pressure going up (lift).
Now you see how it works. (they are in capitals just to highlight important stuff, not trying to make you look dumb. I have done that unintenially in the past )

That is a spoiler, the small 'lip' thing on the back of a car. It has nothing to do with aviation (actually, it does, but not for this reletively simple stuff)
A wing is a device that is an upside down airfoil. It decreases lift, but increases drag. If it is small enough, the drag will be slight. Sometimes it can actually decrease drag by letting the air out quicker and more efficiently. This all depends on a gazillion factors that are hard to understand.

Most magazines call small wings spoilers, which they are not.

Heres another example. On the 911 Turbo, it has a spoiler at first. Then it rises up into uninterupted air, in effect a wing. A true definition is hard to come by, as most people us the terms when they shouldn't.




So a real wing that makes downforce wont make a huge deal at 80mph, but may make some understeer, more noise, and lower gas mileage. It will do the last 2 even if it doesnt work, though. If you put a lip spoiler at the front, you wont decrease understeer much, and would probably decrease it. But you dont need a rear wing unless you are doing seriously fast turns, and you dont want the rear of the car swinging crazily around.