How do spoilers affect the car?

Question

http://blog.wired.com/cars/images/2008/08/28/viper_acr_01_3.jpg

i would like to know how spoilers (like that link above) affects the car not only by the looks, but does it help performance at all? maybe it helps cut back the wind resistance or something?

Answer 1

In fast cars like high end sports cars and super cars, spoilers help keep the car down to the ground at high speeds.

For more normal cars, they are just for looks and do not help unless you modify your normal car to have over 500HP and drive at high speeds.

Answer 2

i believe you are correct

but it also helps when turning

Answer 3

Depends on the spoiler. From what I've heard some factory style spoilers do help aerodynamics while some of them are purely for show and create additional aerodynamic drag.

However a big one like in that picture is more or less for creating downforce at high speeds. A car needs traction, low weight and a lot of power to get up to speed. Weight would add traction but slow it down and create additional inertia which is always bad when you are trying to get moving or stop. So to prevent cars from getting lift at high speeds (a good thing for airplanes, not a good thing for wheel driven vehicles) aerodynamics play a big role and you can see on some cars there is a bit of a spoiler on the bottom of the front bumper and in extreme modified cases a huge one on the top of the trunk.

However you do have to take in consideration when buying a spoiler for a car what it's going to do, if you get too much rear downforce and not enough up front you are going to have less traction on the front end which can lower grip in high speed turns and in front wheel drive vehicles can also cause the tires to slip instead of spin meaning less power to the ground and more wear to the tires.

Answer 4

Spoilers like the one in the picture create downforce which pushes the car in to the ground. This allows the car to travel round corners faster as the downforce provides more grip. The more "wing" you have gives you more downforce which means more grip but less speed in the straights and vice versa.