Big ass wings

[Mach1]

I am looking at doing some aero work on my car, I feel like the front is pretty straight forward, but I was looking for some direction in the rear.

What's the deal with the crazy shaped APR wings, I am not quite understanding the way they are designed, do they have any advantage over a regular shaped wing?


VS

[CYAZ06]

Paul Brown (2011 World Challenge Champion) with Tiger Racing tested all sorts of wings on the market to determine which one was the best for his AIX Mustang, SCCA Mustang and also what would be used, by Ford for the Boss 302S. Hands down the G Stream line was the most effective. This is also what I run on my 93 Cobra.

Here is what Paul had to say:

We had a very interesting weekend at Buttonwillow recently focusing on testing a
new wing with a unique profile on our World Challenge Mustang. We have been
talking with Ed Salter at Downforce Engineering, which can be found at www.G
Stream.com , about his new wing design. Ed had already supplied several
prototypes to a couple of other teams with some great results, but I was still a
skeptic. The other teams had previously run their cars without wings, so I would
expect some improvement. The question I had was, “how would it compare to the
best of what's already out there?” We were excited to find out first hand.

We gave Ed the opportunity to put his design up against a wing that has been an
industry standard in IMSA, Trans-Am and World Challenge for the last 20 years,
which is a Liebeck airfoil. I suggested that we test the two wings back-to-back on
our World Challenge Mustang. I wanted hard numbers and data for comparisons. So
that's exactly what we got.

We first laid down a baseline with the Mustang running the Liebeck airfoil. With the
Stack Data Acquisition in the car, there was no way to fudge the numbers. We
wanted very repeatable data. So after two sessions of baseline, we changed to the
G-Stream wing set at the same pitch setting as the Liebeck and hit the track again.

Holy crap! By the second turn I could already feel the difference. Excited, I pushed
on and cranked out some hot laps. Wow, I would have never thought that changing
the wing could make that big of a difference.

The biggest thing I noticed was how much it tamed the rear of the car down. With the Vortech Supercharged, DOHC 4.6
it's always been a struggle on the low speed corners for grip, putting it down and
getting out. With the new wing that all changed. We went from having a somewhat
neutral, power oversteering car to having much more balanced race car with only a
moderate push, which is preferable at this point. Carol will tell you that she has
much less seat-of-the-pants feel in a car and after only a few laps with the new
wing, even she could tell the difference.

We continued testing and changed the wing settings each session out to collect as
much data as we could. We continue to pore over the data, but bottom line, it
worked and worked well.

In addition to testing on the full track, we also did 95 mph coasts to help calculate
drag. After that, I can tell you for a fact that even with the G-Stream wing set at 10
degrees pitch, it had less drag and almost 50% more down force at mid to low
speeds. Less drag means an increase in overall top speed.

Numbers speak for themselves, and we got them. I was so impressed with the
result, that Tiger Racing is now an official distributor for the G-Stream wings and
they will be used exclusively on both our World Challenge and AIX Mustangs.
Production has just started, so call now to be first on the list.

“It was like adding horsepower in the turns.” ~ Paul Brown, test driver

[aggie97]

APR is a parachute. It's designed for something with 650hp that never goes over 150mph.

The G-stream is a nice wing but again is a parachute on cars under 400hp.

Aero is an interesting science. The downforce created is usually gained at a serious increase in drag.

For most of the cars we drive every week on track, a simple "crawford" style wing with an 8" chord is fine. We can't generate enough front downforce to match what the G-stream and longer chord designs can generate. Most of the time, BIG rear wings are just a bandaid for lack of suspension tuning. For instance, my wife's camaro had a 12" chord wing on it and was sitting at 14 degrees of attack. With 400+rwhp and 3100lbs, it wouldn't do more than 130mph but the rear end was stuck to the pavement. I lowered the rear spring rate from 275's to 175's and took the wing to 6 degrees. Car is slightly loose but will pull 5th gear to redline. After further inspection/testing, I found the rear shock seals to be blown. so for 4 years, the wing was being used to "balance" the car at a cost of speed. My Mustang with only 320rwhp and 2970lbs was 4 to 5 seconds a lap faster at TWS...same driver, same rules, same tires.

So, Aero is a big expense that should be considered for maybe the 5th generation of setup on your car. Getting the rest of the package working first, getting the weight down and getting the driver up to speed are much better investments than aero. Besides, like I said, we can't generate enough front downforce to take full advantage...well, unless you go full on radical like my car....but for the average guy at the track, aero is not the end all. Just my honest opinion because the $2k to $3k you are going to spend on aero can be put into a set of good shocks that will net about the same results and help master the setup better.

[CYAZ06]

APR is a parachute. It's designed for something with 650hp that never goes over 150mph.

The G-stream is a nice wing but again is a parachute on cars under 400hp.

Aero is an interesting science. The downforce created is usually gained at a serious increase in drag.

For most of the cars we drive every week on track, a simple "crawford" style wing with an 8" chord is fine. We can't generate enough front downforce to match what the G-stream and longer chord designs can generate. Most of the time, BIG rear wings are just a bandaid for lack of suspension tuning. For instance, my wife's camaro had a 12" chord wing on it and was sitting at 14 degrees of attack. With 400+rwhp and 3100lbs, it wouldn't do more than 130mph but the rear end was stuck to the pavement. I lowered the rear spring rate from 275's to 175's and took the wing to 6 degrees. Car is slightly loose but will pull 5th gear to redline. After further inspection/testing, I found the rear shock seals to be blown. so for 4 years, the wing was being used to "balance" the car at a cost of speed. My Mustang with only 320rwhp and 2970lbs was 4 to 5 seconds a lap faster at TWS...same driver, same rules, same tires.

So, Aero is a big expense that should be considered for maybe the 5th generation of setup on your car. Getting the rest of the package working first, getting the weight down and getting the driver up to speed are much better investments than aero. Besides, like I said, we can't generate enough front downforce to take full advantage...well, unless you go full on radical like my car....but for the average guy at the track, aero is not the end all. Just my honest opinion because the $2k to $3k you are going to spend on aero can be put into a set of good shocks that will net about the same results and help master the setup better.

All good points Matt. However....i noticed a considerable change to my handling with the G Stream, when my car was around 350 hp. I did have the G Stream splitter though, so it created a ton of downforce on the front with no push. but to your point..... had all the shocks figured out ahead of time. Like you said....Aero should be the last piece of the puzzle.

[aggie97]

All good points Matt. However....i noticed a considerable change to my handling with the G Stream, when my car was around 350 hp. I did have the G Stream splitter though, so it created a ton of downforce on the front with no push. but to your point..... had all the shocks figured out ahead of time. Like you said....Aero should be the last piece of the puzzle.

Initially, my lap times dropped less than .2 seconds at our tracks when I installed the aero and maybe a full second after 2 to 3 years. Through 6 years of development and Hoosiers instead of toyos, I have only been able to get about 3 seconds more....2 seconds of that are the tires.

Aero is over rated and a PITA to deal with on the front of the car for load/unload, off track excursions and curbs.

Just my $0.02.