Why on GOD's green earth would you not want a spoiler on your car?? When I had my Z up to 185 MPH I don't know what it is in KPH but I know its fast as balls, but if I didn't have my spoiler my car would have spun out of control. Now with those fast as street over across the pond there you would think you would want spoilers on your cars to plant them to the ground when reaching insane speeds. Please enlighten me on why you all take off the bloody spoilers.

its about looks and law, first off it looks good, there are very few spoilers that actually accentuate the lines on a Z, smooth does look good, second , the speed limit here is 70mph on motorways( interstate) 30 on residentials and a mix between the two on country roads, we do not all drive round at insane speeds because to do so now means getting caught, they use a LOT of speed cameras and number plate recognition cameras over here.Having said that there are times when nature calls and we do hit silly speeds, then reality kicks in and we realise we pay almost 9 dollars a gallon on fuel.

does the spoiler on the zed actually add downforce - i know what a spolier is supposed to do but i had always asumed that nissan just designed the car to look that way

 

you are right though - if i was driving around at 185 miles an hour i would probably put on a skyline type or something similar or perhaps that jun "ducks arse" one

 

regards,

 

alex

Hi,

Taken from "Nissan 300ZX-Enthusiasts Companion"....

 

" With the car's high performance objectives, good aerodynamics was obviously important for stability and Toshio Yamashita worked closely with the wind tunnel specialists to refine the chosen shape: 'We set a Cd target (drag coefficient), but kept the emphasis on stylingCars with good Cd don't necessarily look good.'

They were happy to achieve a Cd of 0.31 for the noremally aspirated car and to have a lift coefficient close to zero, front and rear.

It became clear, however, that the faster Turbo model would need a deeper front apron and a tail spoiler, even if these increased drag.While accepting the functional requirement, the designers prefer the 'pure' form of the normally aspirated car."

Excuse grammatical errors....typing too quickly! ;)

I got a spoiler, i think the car looks better with 1, smooth looks ok but i feel the car isnt finished off without 1 :)

I got a spoiler, i think the car looks better with 1, smooth looks ok but i feel the car isnt finished off without 1 :)

I agree :bow: There is a spoiler going on mine when it goes into the shop

agree here too. the Z can look great with a smooth arse, but personally i prefer a sensible spoiler, one that follows the lines of the Z.

in 2 minds wether to put one on mine or not, wouldnt know which type to go for

technicaly any spoiler will add downforce. as to how much is down to the spoiler itself. generaly the 2 things that induce downforce are surface area and angle, the greater of both means the greater the force.

 

Is downforce needd for inline speed? Absolutly not. It is needed to push the car down on teh road for cornering. This will explain why many race car teams use very little wing on tracks that are more about straits than corners.

 

Does a bloody great whaletail look good on a road car, nope and I havent seen a single example of one that does.

Stock spoiler looks nasty, ruins the lines of the car and I've also travelled at similar speeds without spoiler....and It didnt make any difference !

 

99spec will be going on my Zed though..but may have to swap it later on for something a bit adjustable that most people will hate when it becomes time to start competing it :wack:

I was under the impression that spoilers were only for adding downforce for cornering at the expense of drag (actually reducing top speed). Anyone who watched the last series of BBC's Topgear will remember the stig spinning off the track because his Koensigigigigigigigig had no spoiler, when it had one it cornered much better. But then there was the Bugatti Veyron test, where to do a top speed run Clarkson used a key to retract all the spoilers and lower the car a bit more.

 

HTH

 

Steve

There's 2 things going on here. From what I've read a spoiler doesn't add any appreciable downforce. It's purpose is to 'spoil' the air flow over the top of the car so that the flow rejoins the flow from under the car further back. ie, away from the car. When the upper and lower flows join up they create turbulance which causes increased drag and buffeting if the turbulant air is in contact with the back end of the car.

The spoiler flips up the flow slightly so the joining point is further back.

 

Also, and even more boringly, the centre of drag of a car, when viewed from the side, should be behind the centre of gravity, so that the balance is sort of self correcting when subjected to side winds, or corners even.

 

Remember those rubber lips stuck to the back of the rear side window on later Sierras?

All they did was create drag, which moved the overall centre of drag further back and make the car more stable.

 

If you want to create downforce then you need to fit a wing, ie, an upside down aeroplane wing, as far away from the bodywork as possible.

If you want to create downforce then you need to fit a wing, ie, an upside down aeroplane wing, as far away from the bodywork as possible.

 

As demonstrated here : -

in 2 minds wether to put one on mine or not, wouldnt know which type to go for

 

I chose the Viper because its not too high and i thought it was the only spoiler that complimented the curves of the car, its not everyones taste but its down to the individuel i guess

I chose the Viper because its not too high and i thought it was the only spoiler that complimented the curves of the car, its not everyones taste but its down to the individuel i guess

 

Don't know what make mine is as it was fitted in Japan before imported here, but it looks very similar to the viper which I think is just the right height for the Zed IMO. In fact I think the viper is a little lower than mine and does seem to fit the lines of the Zed even better than mine.

 

BTW how do you get the photo to be large on the post? I can only show them as thumb nail attachments!

Don't know what make mine is as it was fitted in Japan before imported here, but it looks very similar to the viper which I think is just the right height for the Zed IMO. In fact I think the viper is a little lower than mine and does seem to fit the lines of the Zed even better than mine.

 

BTW how do you get the photo to be large on the post? I can only show them as thumb nail attachments!

Copy to a photobucket, and copy/paste the image code into your thread. :)

Don't know what make mine is as it was fitted in Japan before imported here, but it looks very similar to the viper which I think is just the right height for the Zed IMO. In fact I think the viper is a little lower than mine and does seem to fit the lines of the Zed even better than mine.

 

BTW how do you get the photo to be large on the post? I can only show them as thumb nail attachments!

 

I just copyed the pic from my pc into my rides at that size, comes up in my rides as a thumbnail untill i click on it and it enlarges it, then i just copied the address of the enlarged picture. I only do that because i dont know how to attatch it as a thumbnail that you click on to enlarge the pic lol

I think my spoiler is a viper as well. I can never decide if I like it? I think the Zed looks a bit cr*p with a spoiler on personally, especially the proper GT style upside down wing types.

 

I took the big gay spoiler off of my rex because it was big and gay, but its going back on again as soon as I get a bracket fixed. I did some 'field research' and it got a bit dodgy at warp factor 'quite a lot'.

Is downforce needd for inline speed? Absolutly not. It is needed to push the car down on teh road for cornering. This will explain why many race car teams use very little wing on tracks that are more about straits than corners.

 

Wrong here Chris Downforce is needed to maintain stability of the car even in a staight line. Race teams will use more wing angle for tracks where tops speeds are not attainable and the extra drag is an acceptable penalty to increase cornering stability. They always use wing what ever circuit their at.

 

During the end of the 60's there was a number of fatal racing accidents due to cars lifting off the ground and spining through the air on the straights. They were starting to hit the 180mph mark and the speed of the airflow under the cars was much faster than that over the car due to it being compressed and created lift. Hence the 70's F1 cars all sprouting spoilers. The hight of the rear spoiler raises the level at which the air streams meet behind the car thus lenghtening the airstream beneath the car and making the airstream over the car shorter. this means the air travels faster over the car rather than under the car and creats downforce.

 

A well designed defuser and good aerodynamic car design can acheive much the same without the need for a spoiler as such.

 

 

P.S. Big Wings Rule

The 300 is a sports car and function should be put before image IMO

you could try a rear defuser,,,and that would help at high speed's...as it suck's the car to the road ......

 

...

i like my one, raised in the middle so i can still see out the back window too !

 

Looks like it's melted in the sun and been picked up.

 

I bet 90% of the spoilers made for Zs don't aid downforce as none of them are ever put through extensive wind tunnel testing.

Looks like it's melted in the sun and been picked up.

 

I bet 90% of the spoilers made for Zs don't aid downforce as none of them are ever put through extensive wind tunnel testing.

:rofl: now now :nono: here here :rofl:

i dont want a spoiler because they are in the majority, merely cosmetic, and as yet i have not found one to my taste.

 

in fact i ripped mine off because it was gash and the red one is getting ripped off shortly.

this is the viper spoiler on mine