gen III spoiler functional?

[SuperHO]

i think i remember reading somewhere that this duck's ass spoiler on the back of the fat bastard is actually functional...truth? if so, i'll reinstall it. if not, the wifey and i are both diggin the car without it.

 

[LJRuddy]

I remember reading about this too... IIRC, there were only 2 cars made in 96 with functional spoilers. One was the SHO and the other was a Porsche ersumshit.

 

[-DVP-]

One of the NE guys has a pic of it. I think its Archer.

 

[SHO U UP]

Yeah, the pic was of an SHO on a flat bed trailer with snow on it and someone from behind it took the pic showing how the wind was working around the spoiler. Correct me if I'm wrong though guys.

 

[jmpSHO2nd]

Yeah, the pic was of an SHO on a flat bed trailer with snow on it and someone from behind it took the pic showing how the wind was working around the spoiler. Correct me if I'm wrong though guys.

I remember that pic.

 

[frosho]

It is most definitely functional.

 

[shooff82]

As small as they are, they still add surface area to the ass-end of the car. I always thought one off an older Bonneville would look better and be more beneficial because they're longer and wider and a little more pleasing to the eye. At least for me. It would probably work, too because they seem to have similar deck lid contours.

 

[stephen newberg]

The Gen III SHO deck lid spoiler is one of the very few that you will run across that is functional at normal operating speeds. A lot of design work went into making that happen. And it is certainly distinctive as well. You might consider putting it back on, though I know some people just do not like the way it looks.

pax, smn

 

[LJRuddy]

I'd be interested in seeing some numbers on the kind of down force it produced at varying speeds in relation to other functional production car spoilers.

 

[Inkertinker]

http://www.shoforum.com/showthread.php?t=96585&highlight=gen+spoiler

 

[Izzmo]

Ah, pic doesn't work anymore.

Basically Anon was towing his SHO and it had snow on it, when he was going down the highway you could distinctly see the snow parting off the spoiler correctly. It was a good pic.

 

[frosho]

The pic is there in Dave's link.

http://www.nesho.com/images/forum/spoiler.jpg

 

[Izzmo]

Oh, weird, it was working for me in the post.

 

[rbruso]

I think it was Car and Driver that did a test back in the late 90's of stock spoilers/wings. Back to back with and without the wing/spoiler.

The SHO actually helped with rear downforce at speed (100+) while the same year Mustang wing dropped the top speed of that car by about 5mph.

I'll dig back through my pile of magazines, but I might not have that one anymore.

A quick search online looks like it was the September 1998 Car and Driver article entitled "Do Air Dams, Spoilers, and Wings Work?"

 

[sperold]

I can't remember where, but I recall that the SHOs of those years had an amazingly low coefficient of drag (CD). Off the top of my head, it was near 3.0. That is the number you multiply by the 2D frontal area of the car to get the drag number.
Had I have known that the shape was borne in a wind tunnel, and served a very noble purpose, I might have been able to embrase the styling before I developed a dislike for it.
Where is that advertising department when you need them, form follows function, and all that?

 

[frosho]

I can't remember where, but I recall that the SHOs of those years had an amazingly low coefficient of drag (CD). Off the top of my head, it was near 3.0.

I think you mean 0.30 Cd.

I know the Gen 2 was 0.29, so 0.30 wouldn't be a bad guess for a Gen 3.

 

[hawkeye18]

.29 Cd was, and still is, an amazingly low number for such a pedestrian vehicle. Take a look here and you'll see that a fairly low percentage of vehicles get under .29.

 

[SHOMON]

Nice WIKI info hawkeye. Thanks

 

[sperold]

Damn decimal point!
I think the gen 3 had a better number than the earlier models.
I am working hard to appreciate the styling of the Gen 3, but my work is not yet done.

 

[stephen newberg]

Damn decimal point!
I think the gen 3 had a better number than the earlier models.
I am working hard to appreciate the styling of the Gen 3, but my work is not yet done.

I admit to never having been hugely a fan of the stylistics, but these days it does have the advantage of at least not looking identical to the current stuff, most of which looks identical to each other in the main.

And, over the years, it does grow on you.

pax, smn