you talking about wings or spoilers???

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On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST

1983 300SD - 305000
1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000
1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000

https://media.giphy.com/media/X3nnss8PAj5aU/giphy.gif

Such slow, slow cars . . .

Mercedes seemed to have a thing with spoilers

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

And don't forget the Ruf CTR2

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

... a spoiler has no air passage between it's leading edge and the body of the car...
a wing does...
all the above pics are wings...

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 560SL convertible
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
2005 Dodge Sprinter 2500 158"WB
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

Hamma' time

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'07 Yukon 2500
'13 Subaru Outback 3.6R
'13 Orbea Carpe 9-speed

Currently Benzless
Formerly: 300TD, S600, E55, 560SEL

---= The forest breathes, listen.
-Native American elder

If you insist




And don't forget the front spoiler

__________________
TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

The difference as I have always understood it was in the results not the aesthetic...

Spoilers vs. Wings
Spoilers are often confused with wings. Both are used on many performance cars and operate under the same principles. Spoilers, however, work by altering the flow of air over the body of the car, reducing the lift generated by the vehicle as air passes over it, whereas wings are primarily designed to generate down force and do not have a significant effect on the generation of lift created by the body of the car. Spoilers are generally an integral part of the vehicle body and are small panels mounted very close to the body. Wings are generally much larger than spoilers and mounted on pedestals or brackets that place them well above the body of the vehicle where they can produce the most down force, free of air turbulence caused by the vehicle.

__________________
On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST

1983 300SD - 305000
1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000
1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000

https://media.giphy.com/media/X3nnss8PAj5aU/giphy.gif

As vstech mentioned, some spoilers are used to reduce drag as opposed to providing down force. I think that the whale tail on the Porsche 911 is a prime example. The way the regular 911 slopes in the rear causes the flow over the car to separate early, resulting in a large wake, which essentially sucks the car backwards. The whale tail delays the point of separation, reducing the drag on the car.

Or at least that's how I recall it from engineering school all those many years ago.

You guys are great.

As it has been alluded to above, it's a trade off; to generate lift or downforce your engineering compromise is C_d (or even your frontal area, which also increases drag).

In most driving conditions you're not limited by traction (where downforce is necessary), hence, you're just stuck with the drag tradeoff and none of the benefits. Every aerodynamic device's performance is a function of Reynolds number...translating into performance being "optimum" at one relative velocity and not at another. Proper use is heavily dependent on application...nothing general purpose here.

But hey, glue all the wings you want onto the back of your pickup trucks. It's the visual statement that matters

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1982 240D, sold 9/17/2008
1987 300D TurboW124.133 - 603.960, 722.317 - Smoke Silver Metallic / Medium Red (702/177), acquired 8/15/2009
262,715 and counting