Reply to "rear wing aerodynamics"

Does the 'std' rear wing create lift, drag or actually do anything?
To my knowlege no one has actually checked in a wind tunnel or with any instrumentation, but a few observations:
First, the 'std' wing is also used by the Lambo Countache, and in a road test a few decades ago, a magazine pitted the Ferrari Boxer against a Countache at Mid-Ohio road course. The Ferrari was slightly faster so Lambo technicians removed the wing; the Countache then gained about 15 mph and beat the Ferrari's time.... but there were big black spots on the track where rear end lift had caused the Lambo to twitch sideways some 3 ft at a time... at 180 mph. The test driver, pale and shaking, declined to make another run. With the rear wing, the car was stable and easy to drive but slower.

Second; a British magazine ran an informal test on a then-new '87 GT5-S both with and without the 'std' wing on one of their famous race courses. The article noted that lap times were several seconds faster with the wing, although the car 'felt' stable in both configurations, according to the driver.

Third, Larry Stock says that when he was drafting Hennessey's Viper at 180mph during a Silver State event a few years back, rear end lift caused his '73 Pantera to wheelspin noticably: the tach suddenly climbed. He now runs a small NASCAR-style blade spoiler attached to the trunk lip, not the decklid, to go with his big air-dam & splitter. The combo seems to balance the Pantera better at very high speeds.

Bottom lines: Aerodynamic balance at 170 and above is different than at 150. Pushing down really hard on one end of a car will cause the other end to rise, pivoting around the center of balance. No hard facts but it seems advisable to carry some 'Depends" if you attempt to go real fast with no aerodynamic aids on either end of your Pantera!