Is there a way to keep the wing from deploying? I'd prefer the additional speed and drag reduction. I've read that it produces up to 300 pounds of downforce which is like dragging around a fat guy all the time. Fuse?

 

 

Thank you! It's too bad the deploy switch isn't a disable switch. What were they thinking?

 

I wonder if one can snip the speedo signal wire. Then the deploy switch would become a manual deploy without auto deploy. That would be ideal.

There are lots of nanny nav systems where that is done to allow programming a destination while moving.

 

Probably thinking the extra downforce is necessary to keep the car stable. But you would know better than the engineers.

Edit... Reduction of lift, because it's not a wing.

 

At a piddly 300 pounds max, the girl catcher doesn't even qualify as a wing. All it does is reduce straight line performance and suck fuel. Same thing all wings do in a straight line.

A Viper ACR wing sucks about 7 mpg at 1800 lbs downforce, creating a holistic Cd of 0.555 for the car, more than half of a flat board. But it's a track car.

 

It doesn't qualify as a wing because it's not a wing, not because of its net effect.

It's also a wing, i.e. really a wing. How fast do you need to go in an ACR to get 1800 lbs. of downforce anyway?

 

All the more reason to ditch it while cruising.

Unknown but it obviously it would depend on the track in mind when setting it up. Probably not that fast to hit critical AOA at max lateral g. All the more reason these things are silly on street cars.

 

Are you being glib, or nonsensical? Whether it's a wing or a spoiler, the net effect is the important part.

If you don't want it to come up, never go faster than 70mph (65 for the convertible?).

 

Shucks, I wish mine remained deployed all the time, I like looking at it in the rear view. I don't race it, worry about acceleration figures or gas mileage or what anyone else thinks of it.

 

Press the button.

 

As I said; you'd know better than the engineers. All roads are straight, right?

 

I'm being normal. 90% of buyers understand wings and spoilers are for show off the track, and even on the track for GTs like our cars. And 99% don't track their cars anyway. More like 100% have no idea how much it hurts acceleration and mileage. It hurts a lot.

I remember setting my new 85 MR2 trunk lid + wing down on a box about 2" too tall to close it flush. Top speed dropped to about 65 from 120 mph. It was a 115 hp car if memory serves. A lot of MR2s sold without the wing and were much faster cars.

Our little pop-up is smaller, so maybe it costs 30-50 hp to drag around at highway speed up to 100mph or so? If you could retract it above 100 the car would surge 10 mph or more.

 

Just the highlights: I don't agree. False equivalence. Speculation. Remember the Audi TT recall?

 

Switchy no worky, only deploy at 70 and retract at 50 on coupey. Manually operatey at full stop, in park, with emergency brake on for cleany.

 

Props for the MR2! I had a 1986 MR2 bright red, body colored wheels with chrome lip . Such a fun car. Mobile phone too!! .25/minute and worked as good or better than my 2018 mobile phone call quality wise.

Then I went on to a 1991 MR2 Turbo. Much faster but never liked the car as much. Tail happy and dangerous. Maybe it was the bigger 1986 rear spoiler/wing that saved me!

 

Its really not "speculation" that 300 pounds of lift/downforce causes significant drag. Its easy to calclute since its a flat plate airfoil cross section. But we dont need to measure angles and speeds to conclude its a big time waste of substantial drag.

Its bizarre that "engineers" will throw a paperclip overboard to save weight (or charge $1500 to make it from carbon fiber) then slap a fake wing on the tail. I dont hate the look, but lets face the fact thats its a performance joke.

 

In a controlled situation, I tested this. Wing switched off and in down position with the switch I installed. My 15 R yells at me if I exceed about 100. "Spoiler not available!!!" with big flashing exclamation. Since the software waits until 100 to warn you, this leads me to believe we're safe at highway speeds without the wing deployed in that 50-70 MPH range where'd I'd prefer not to see it in my rearview. I shouldn't be going over 100. That's a jail sentence in most of this country if you get clocked by the police doing that. With my switch I can also set the wing to stay at any height, if I want, for looks.

 

The speculation to which I referred was 30-50 hp up to 100. You can calclute (sic) all you want treating the spoiler in isolation as an airfoil, and you'd still get the wrong answer.

I'll ask again. Do you remember the Audi TT recall? Hint: It was for aerodynamic reasons.

 

Exactly, we spend so little time in the 100s relative to normal driving that a manual deploy or overide switch makes so much more sense. And P. S. Jaguar fans, there are plenty of cars without wings that break 100 safely, for the past 1000 years.

80-85 mph speed limits are common here, so 100 isnt jail time but 150 might be.