Carbon wing - what setting are people using?

The wiki states to set the wing at 0 degs and tune from there - but I’d like to get feedback from folks who have this wing and have used it, either in the street or on the track.

What are you guys running and what usage type/speeds are you taking the car to? I know Frank has this wing but he’s running BORR which is very high sustained speeds - a usage case well outside my plans.

I’m planning on hitting a top speed of 110-120 only momentarily but my usage case is primarily as a street car with canyon drives on the weekends. I’d like to get some benefit of having the wing other than for looks - of which it looks beautiful btw. I’m sure if I take it to a track day my top speed would only just kiss the 120 range anyway.

Thanks,
Cam
 
I'm running mine on the street, not the track, so factor that in.

The range of effectiveness is remarkably narrow for this wing, which has a Selig 1223 profile (IIRC). It begins to stall at 14 degrees AOA, which isn't much. See https://upcommons.upc.edu/bitstream/handle/2117/27650/15610572.pdf for more details. For those who are contemplating using it as an airbrake- don't. It isn't designed for use at 90 degrees and will likely snap in two (or more) pieces. :)

For most cars, the wing should be considered a tuning device- if you want to get the most overall useful downforce, get as much as you can from the front (functional fender vents, flat floor in front with good sealing, track splitter, as low ride height as possible, positive rake around an inch overall, etc) and add more from the wing as needed to balance.

Just as a data point, I run mine at about 5 degrees AOA when not braking and the car is stable everywhere I've driven it. It's been up to 140 MPH at the track, on a straight. That's hardly a definitive test or result, though, as one can't really corner hard enough on the street to make real use of the added downforce the wing provides.

Be sure that when you are measuring the AOA, that you measure accurately- don't put a level on the leading and trailing edges of the wing and take those numbers- to get an accurate reading of AOA, you need to run the angle meter roughly through the thrust line.

The carbon wing really is a piece ripped right off current competitive sports racers, and is a fantastic compromise between downforce and drag.

Be sure to use properly-designed endplates as failure to do so will result in a noticeable loss of efficiency as well as looking dorky.
 
Will - for ease of measurement, would you mind throwing a level between the trailing edge and the tangent to the leading edge and letting us know what you get? It’s the easiest way to measure the wing angle.

I know this goes against the whole engineered car thing - but I’m not a fan of the large endplates included with the kit. I plan to try and reproduce the smaller end plates as featured on the rapier cars. If anyone has one and wouldn’t mind tracing a template out for me I’d be might appreciative!
 

Howard Jones

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Howard - yes, those! I’mma call you in a day or two. Need to get a few things squared away here first.
 
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