Trouble with a Seasonal? Try a wing...

[crossup]

Last several races for me has been the Brit Lightweight London Round in my trusty Lotus Europa Special- done up to duplicate the '74 Johnny Player Special I owned years ago. Tuned to the bone, I could not gold this race...frustrating because my loss was typically .5sec or less. Best was .224 sec behind....

Finally in frustration I added a wing even though I figured the extra downforce vs drag just wouldnt help much.
WRONGO! first go with the wing set to max(20) I passed for the lead on lap 4 just before the finish line! and won by 4.5sec driving easy to make sure I brought it home
So a wing can be a pretty big help, especially if you're struggling for rear grip.

 

[MM1000]

:/

Well yes. There's a reason high performance race cars employ wings. They make a huge difference in traction. You launch out of corners faster, and can brake later.

I particularly like the Enzo's wing, which helps a car that needs some help, and also makes the car look much better. It actually looks like the car is wrong without the wing.

 

[crossup]

Ok, well I wasn't making a 'geez, I guess aero works comment, I'm a pilot and R/C modeler so I know wings I've also followed racing long enough to have seen the 2D/2J in a real life race back in the day and F1 since it was run at the Glenn(again, I was there ) My point was more like I guess in GT5 wings work even on slower, lower hp cars, in the right circumstances. In my case London provided lots of time with speeds in the 80-120 mph range which would produce significant downforce. And in fact it probably gave me 10-15% more traction which is about how much the car needed to work the high speed corners without becoming upset during transitions.

 

[MM1000]

It really wasn't until 1968 or so that Porsche and Ford really began to understand the benefits of downforce.

Seems obvious now.

Same car, basically, but with improvements related to the straight at Le Mans causing instability for Porsche's then highest powered car (They were traditionally a lower powered lightweight contender).

Frankly, it is obvious now, but to people who won races, or built aircraft, or understood a great deal about an engine, it was just assumed that downforce=drag=not possibly faster.

On a city street track, with slower cars, downforce is still helpful. You're not reaching high speeds, so you incur much less penalty. Often you have tire restrictions, so the traction bonus is critical.

I am not sure this relates well to seasonal events in particular.

 

[crossup]

The point of this as far as Seasonals go, is that if you're close to winning but need just a little more, a wing may be the answer. I don't know about most folks but I prefer NOT to mod a car if I can win without mods, so in that respect less is more. In my case I was out of options except the wing and it was exactly what I needed.

 

[BarronGeddon]

Drag really isn't a factor in GT5. People have tested it and found it makes little difference.

Downforce really is however. So a wing on a twitchy/slidey RWD is gunna speed you up.