I understand the aerodynamic principles that make spoilers important for performance cars (at least in broad strokes), but I have always wondered if they actually make a big difference in cars that are not so performance oriented, especially fwd commuter cars. I know that aero is less effective at slow speeds, so I would also like to know at what speeds spoilers really give an advantage?
Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge!
In: Engineering
Spoilers provide downforce at highway speeds. The downforce helps the car stick to the ground, especially in turns. How much depends on many factors. Indy cars provide enough downforce that at race speeds they could literally drive on the roof of a tunnel. On small commuter cars the downforce is still there and helps at highway speeds. But overall the total performance of the car suffers, albeit an imperceptible amount. This is because it adds more drag to the vehicle. More drag equals less gas mileage and performance. And for you speed junkies out there. A big spoiler on a fwd car will most definitely slow you in the quarter mile, and in extreme cases can cause your front wheels to loose grip under high acceleration/high speed situations. The back end of the car is being pushed down which pushes the front end up. This is because these cars were not designed for this. High performance cars have other aero components to put downforce in the front as well.
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