Do today's spoilers actually do anything?

Look at the size and placement of the Daytona / Superbird rear spoilers. And that's for going 200 mph. Imagine what the dinky spoilers positioned a few inches above the trunk do at your typical highway speed -> nothing.

Pure boy-racer stuff. Made to give your rice burner a little visual differentiation from all the other ricers out there. Cheaper than a set of mags. I put mud flaps, vent-visors, 2-piece bra, trunk-liner, K&N air filter on my 300. I did not opt for the spoiler.

Yes, they setup turbulence and destroy the carefully designed aerodynamics of the car, much like hanging a parachute off the back of the car does. As a result the car burns more fuel to go the same speed.

Ted

Yeah, much like most front-end bras, mud flaps and vent-visors.

Mike,

You've piqued my interest. Exactly how does one skate board on a waterway?

Bob

I can't hold back any more and must ask the question: what is a bra in this context?

DAS Hillbilly from London

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HA HA! Guess the automatic spelling corrector in my laptop assumed I meant rivers when I typed 'ricers,' without quote marks LOL

mike hunt

Bob Shaman wrote:

I agree. Many are there for a reason, many are not. I believe the Porsche spoilers are for real. Many true sport cars have real spoilers that do something after a certain speed...usually over 125 or more.

Believe poster was referring to the new Beetle (NB).

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Frictional heating from the high speeds that Beetles routinely attained. :-)

Matt

no, He specifically referred to "old Super Beetle VW"

Never made sense to me, either, but that's what many VW people told me. Never having been, or ever going to be, a VW fan, I just chalked it up to the quirkiness of them.

Which pretty much sums it up. At in-town and highway speeds, they do virtually nothing other than look neat.

2) Old VW Beetles did suffer from hot engines, which is why you could see lots of owners propping the engine compartments slightly open when driving.

It was overall a fairly lousy car and I never could understand why it sold so many, especially in Germany. Still, I guess it wasn't that expensive to buy and repairs were easy because so many parts were just bolt-on.

DAS

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Factory installed spoilers are functional. Most of them are not on the car to provide downforce, as on most race cars, but to smooth out the air flow over the car. Aftermarket spoilers are mostly for looks and killing gas mileage.

----------------- Alex __O _-\

Makes no sense since bras have been around a lot longer than the new beetle.

----------------- Alex __O _-\

Maybe this picture will help:

The mistake most people make is leaving them on all the time and for city driving, because then they abrade the paint, trap moisture against the paint, and do all sorts of other nasty things.

I remember a rear-engined Simca, I believe it was, that came with the rear engine cover slightly ajar, from the factory, for that very reason. Or was it an NSU?

Gosh! Don't think I see many of these over here -- thanks for the pic.

I suppose they are clipped on.

I realise they are 'only' plastic, but I wonder how the car's crash performance is affected, both from driver/crumple-zone and pedestrian perspective.

DAS

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