Street tail wing mounting solution needed

[Rich Kruger]

I purchased my SLC second hand and unfinished. It came with a street tail. I REALLY want a rear wing. Before I purchase a race tail I wanted to know if anyone has successfully adapted rear wing mounts to a street tail. I know the RCR SLC had a wing but I didn't want to use the gooseneck style mounts. Any ideas?

 

[Cam]

Allan adapted a rear wing to his street tail SLC.

http://www.gt40s.com/forum/gt40-cars-sale/47580-sl-c-superlite-coupe-ls376-ricardo-sale-sold.html

Others have done similar for the SLC race wing (Allan's was made by APR I believe).

 

[Rich Kruger]

I did see Allan's solution previously. I was more interested in mounting it directly to the chassis like the race tail.

 

[Cam]

http://www.gt40s.com/forum/slc-clubhouse/35260-slc-picture-thread-6.html

See posts 232 and 233.

 

[Rich Kruger]

Thanks Cam. There are a lot of differant designs on that thread. I have a few ideas to try. Mainly the mounting may be a two piece design with the upper wing mounted section to be captured in the lower mounting. The downward and rearward forces distributed onto the lower section by shared contact areas but held in place by Dzus buttons to allow quick removal for power train access. The trick will be combining a strong lightweight design that doesn't look bulky.

 

[Frank Clark]

I mounted mine to the transaxle and it pivots down. Fling had a similar setup but choose to go a different way. On my car I cut out the back of the bodywork, but this is not necessary.

Here is a picture of Fling's car where you can just see where the mounts poke through the bodywork, you can find this and other pics in his build thread on 10/15/2013.

The brackets on his car came from RCR. My wing is mounted much higher, so those brackets caused a lot of wabble, so I added a support between them which made it reasonably solid. To date, car has only seen about 170mph, but all seems fine.

ps. Think my tail lights should go on the alternative headlight/taillight thread?

 

[Frank Clark]

Here is what the "Fling Wing" kit included from RCR. Not obvious are the bolts that go through the spacers (but they were included). The brackets bolt to the side of the Graz transaxle (using spacers on one side). The holes for this were not drilled. And the brackets have a lot of extra metal. So I assume they were re-purposed for this.

Here are the brackets after I trimmed them down.

And my replacement for the little spacers in the kit:

My uprights are similar to the RCR ones, but much taller.

 

[Michael Fling]

I now have simple mounts that carry the aero forces to the chassis, but allow the wing to pivot with the body open/close. Here is the link:

http://www.gt40s.com/forum/slc-clubhouse/39723-fling-slc-build-thread-15.html

 

[A.J. Schreder]

Thanks for all that detail Frank. What grade and thickness aluminum are you using?

A.J.

 

[Rich Kruger]

As far as I am concerned the ingenious types of designs for this and other modifications is what makes building this car so much fun. Thanks guys!

 

[Aaron H.]

I'm designing my street tail wing mount now.

 

[Frank Clark]

Thanks for all that detail Frank. What grade and thickness aluminum are you using?

A.J.

Sorry, just saw this question. I used 1/4" 6061-T651 for the uprights. I suspect the parts from RCR were the same. My AL cross piece is just scrap 6061-T6 off the shelf. The X brace and the end plate braces are 0.375 x 0.065 DOM Mild Steel.

 

[Frank Clark]

I'm designing my street tail wing mount now.

Something like that will work well. Be sure you have some adjustment for the angle of attack, and you will want some type of bracing between the uprights. Your end plates look like they probably will *not* need bracing.

Some folks have gotten away with a single cross brace between the uprights. Mine still had too much wobble, and the lack of symmetry bothered me anyway.

 

[Dan Carter]

How much down-force can we expect at say 60MPH as a reference at 5 to 7 degrees?

I assume 5 to 7 is about right generally.