10 Things i hate about cars in general

  • Thread starter Thread starter howie2
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Why do most people hate spoilers? They add rear downforce, giving the car better grip & stability. The bigger the spoiler the better.
 
Follow the logic through....

Assuming, first of all, that a spoiler does in fact generate downforce - many don't.
Now, take that spoiler and add it to the rear of a front-wheel drive car.
Under acceleration, weight shifts to the rear of the car, off the drive wheels. At a given speed the spoiler starts to generate noticeable downforce on the rear of the car, transferring yet more weight off the drive wheels.
Now you have a car whose driven wheels have little weight above them. This means acceleration occurs at a decelerating rate, because of a decreasing contact patch with the road. You've also got less weight on the wheels for turning - hence a big, functional rear spoiler on a front-wheel drive car leads to LESS grip and stability.

For the most part, added aftermarket spoilers aren't functional. This has the sole effect of placing an object in the airstream of your car, decreasing the aerodynamics and increasing the frontal area, leading to an increase in air resistance and a corresponding DROP in performance.
 
We aren't going to even answer that.


But there is nothing wrong with Euros on a truck, hell I have em on mine and I think they look pretty good.
 
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On the subject of spoilers, there are situations where they are legitimately useful, even on FFs. However, none of those situations involve normal street driving.
 
The worst point up there is number 7. Put a B16A Honda engine in a Mini, and youve got one really, scary fast car. Id much rather do that than spend thousands of pounds on a original Mini A-series enigne that idles too rough for the road and has shocking reliability.

And besides, since when is a Skyline beautiful? (assuming your talking about the R34)

Id say its "muscular".
 
On the subject of 'spoilers' or 'wings' on road cars, very few road cars actually benefit from the addition of spoilers. Those that do come with spoilers as standard either have them for reasons of high-speed stability, because they have very high top-speeds, or they have them for racing homologation reasons.
Most after-market spoilers are there for show only and have no downforce producing quality - they only produce drag, which is bad. As for 'rear wings on FF cars' - have you ever seen the BTCC? - all FF, and all with huge wings on the back. If they were of no use, or even detrimental to their performance - why would the teams run them?
 
The aerodynamic aids in the British Touring Car Championship are of little to no benefit as the cars simply do not reach high enough speeds to generate much in the way of downforce.

The rear wing does help to interrupt the airflow and stabilise the back end through higher-speed corners, but not by way of generating downforce - just by creating regions of disturbed air around themselves. When was the last time you saw a BTCC engineer adjust the angle of attack of the rear spoiler mid-race? Or at all?

However, the cars are set up with extremely stiff rear suspension to prevent much weight being shifted off the front wheels under acceleration. They are more prone to oversteer than understeer, although they will understeer predominantly when really pushed to the edges of their capabilities.
 

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