Wing (automotive)

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(for the panels around the wheels of a car see Fender (vehicle)

A wing in this context is an aerodynamic device intended to reduce drag and/or generate downforce on an automobile, thereby helping the drive wheels to maintain traction at high speeds. Wings have a distinctive airfoil shape, and are specifically designed to exert a predictable influence on the airflow around that portion of the automobile. Although identical in form to the wing of an aircraft, wings used in automotive applications are usually inverted (oriented upside-down) and sometimes reversed (oriented backwards) by comparison.

Spoilers are often confused with wings, and the terms are frequently yet incorrectly used interchangeably.

A recent trend is to add a wing to the rear of sports and modified passenger cars, including front wheel drive vehicles. Many people believe that Front wheel drive vehicles do not benefit from a wing because the downforce is not over the drive wheels. Downforce at the rear of the vehicle causes slight lift at the front of the vehicle, resulting in less tire surface in contact with the road and consequently poorer acceleration and handling performance. This is of course, false.

Any car that can be made to oversteer, including front wheel drive cars, can benefit from the addition of wings. Generally with a front wheel drive vehicle adding a wing to the rear of the car makes the rear of the car most stable and the front end consequently loses grip even earlier resulting in a more pronounced understeer effect. The goal when aerodynamically modifying any vehicle for racing purposes is to decrease your overall lap times. With any front wheel drive car you are fighting the car's constant desire to understeer. Using a combination of front spoilers, rear wings, and suspension adjustments it is possible to get a Front Wheel Drive car to understeer less, produce more grip, and achieve lower lap times. The same is true of Rear Wheel drive vehicles. In either case the addition of wings, front and rear, adds overall grip. This grip must be balanced, however, for the car to perform as the driver would like it to.

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