996 Wing Aerodynamics - The Uber Thread

I think it would be a good idea to compile some statistics on the wings available for 996's and the amount of downforce they can produce, as well as other important statistics which would be considered important to "go faster" so to speak. Once we have compiled a bunch of data, I will put it toghether in a table and post it online. I will begin searching for information and filling it in as i can get it, but others, please chime in if you have any data to contribute as I would like this to become a comprehensive and informative thread. Please post information in the following format: Manufacturer Name Of Wing Price Weight Material of construction Angle of Attack Downforce produced at X speed Other Notes (other comments you would like to make regarding the wing). An example of such would be something like the following: Porsche OEM GT3 RS (Street Car) Wing 2150 Euro Weight: xx lbs alone, xx lbs when mounted to base/decklid Angle of Attack: 0deg stock, 4 and 8 deg shims available Downforce produced: ?????? Other notes: Available on european GT3 RS street car. Aftermarket replicas available in Fiberglass. Other personal comments on handling effect go here. This is a pretty good list of wings I think are popular and worth collecting data on: Porsche Aerokit I (99-2001 996/GT3) Porsche Aerokit II (2002-2004/5 996/GT3) Porsche GT3 RS (European Street Car) Porsche GT3 "CUP" Car Wing (2002 or so cup cars) Porsche GT3 RSR (i think the wing was longer on this compared to the cup car version because of the wider body) Porsche GT2 (996 Turbo/GT2) Mashaw GT2 Wing (aftermarket for 996) MISHA GT2 wing (aftermarket for 996) RUF RGT Wing (99-2001 996/GT3/RGT) RUF Ducktail Spoiler I think that covers the most common wings seen on 996's that are pushed hard. I'll cross post this on rennlist/renntech/6speedonline in the interest of speeding up data collection.

Here is the formula for the calculation of downforce: D = 0.5 x (WS x H x AoA) x F x p xV^2 (in other words V squared) Where: D is downforce in newtons WS is wingspan in metres H is height in metres AoA is angle of attack F is aerodynamic coefficient ? is air density in kg/m3 V is velocity in m/s2

Photos or links would also be good.

Omar, good idea but pretty much pointless for 99% of the guys here. Unless you take your car to the track or push it well above the 100+ mark on the highway then you really will not feel the effect of the downforce. And if you want the "optimal" wing for the car then you really have 1 choice: OEM. For the pre-facelift cars, there is the carrera wing and the MkI (taco) wing and for the facelift models you have the carrera wing, the MkII (GT3) wing, and the RS wing (need to pair with cup splitter). For the fat-**** crowd you have the aerokit wing (TT/C4S) and you have the GT2 wing. Anything other than that and you are talking bling. Nothing wrong with bling, but the last thing you want is an UNTESTED replica that is made of heavier materials and could actualy produce negative results at high speed--which has been confirmed by Rennlisters that tried replica items. So you just need to ask yourself, what you are looking for in a wing. Functional or Bling?

personally i will be looking at function this time around since i will now be racing and i believe my current wing has far too steep an angle of attack relative to the tracks we will be on. I definitly understand the point that your making about untested replicas and bling, although it was my understanding that Techart does aerotest there cars (ditto for RUF) but i will digress on those since we both agree it seems. my real interest is between the various forms of the porsche factory wings..I.E. certain cup cars will run the taco/aerokit II wing but others will run the CUP wing (the gangsta looking race wing) and i'm curious as to the aero difference between them, there must be a reason that the different wings are used. I mean, i could probably run at our local shannonville track sans wing at all since the straights are so short and its a very tight technical corner, but for mosport...proper aero would be a must.

How do you suggest we come up with the aerodynamic coefficient for a given wing. I doubt that even some of the manufacturers know this value for their wing.

what about angles for the MKI GT3 Wing (taco style)?

Dell is spot on, OEM is the only choice, AD speaking all others are basically junk including OEM lookalikes. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, been there, done that.

^ Chris, there must be someone who can make an accurate replica of the OEM wing out of a lightweight material. It would seem to me as if there would be quite a bit of weight to be saved by going from stock PU material to a composit.

^ Chris, there must be someone who can make an accurate replica of the OEM wing out of a lightweight material. It would seem to me as if there would be quite a bit of weight to be saved by going from stock PU material to a composit.

That would be nice, but just isn't the case I'm afraid. The misha gt2 wing is a prime example (I had one), the wing size, ht, AoA, area of lateral drag are very different than a oem GT2. It looks roughly the same, but acts completely differently AD wise (read squirrly at the track). A while back I compared my oem aerokit to the misha gt2 wing in a thread, the differences were significant, and that was widebody C4S to widebody C4S, can't imagine how off the aerodynamics would be with a GT2 on a NB car. I would strongly suggest that anybody out there considering a wing/aerokit not waste their money on aftermarket stuff, the quality, R&D, prep work required negate any percieved savings. You really do get what you pay for in this case. Off my soapbox. C

Omar, I commend your idea. I totally disagree with those that are of the opinion that your only "good" aero option is the one that Porsche provides (i.e. aerokit). In my PCA region I have seen plenty of cars that utilize aftermarket and "home grown" aero solutions with apparent good results. In much the same way that individuals can experiment with different suspension options or tire sizes to suit their particular needs, there is no reason that aero mods cannot be successful.

This figure gets thrown around a lot but I've actually driven (i realize we aren't talking about the exact same porsche and the stock aerodynamics have improved but...) a 964-RSA with no wing, RS "whaletail" wing and a multi-element RS3.8 "bi-plane" wing back-to-back and you can definitely feel a difference at highway 55+mph speeds with the multi-element. Not that our cars are unstable to begin with but the car is a LOT more stable with the bigger wing. The thing that stuck out most was the improved crosswind stability. So if you can live with the boi~racer looks they are definitely worth adding.

All these are valid points OEM VS AFT but my concerns are balance front to back and the only way I know is to test is the taxpayer paid wind tunnel.