Please Educate Me - Why No Spoiler On Performance Pack?

DarkestHour said:

Yet the PP weighs more than the Standard and also has suspension bits (which are heavy) that the Standard doesn't.

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That kind of supports my argument. A useless spoiler is just extra weight.

As far as the GT350, I imagine it has some quality of Aero to it. How much, I don't know. But given it's shape and similarity to spoilers like what's on a Z06, it would make sense. Despite all of that, from my limited experience in road course/track cars it's height is no where near what a true track car needs. Your average race car has the ostentatious whale tales or park bench spoilers depending upon body shape etc. I wished I owned a wind tunnel to find out for myself what the Aero on these cars are made of, but unfortunately I am not a rich oil baron.

DarkestHour said:

Yet the PP weighs more than the Standard and also has suspension bits (which are heavy) that the Standard doesn't.

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A base standard VS a base PP there is only like a 30lb difference so considering what you get, that's a pretty minimal trade off for a few extra lbs.

Agent_S550 said:

I wished I owned a wind tunnel to find out for myself what the Aero on these cars are made of, but unfortunately I am not a rich oil baron.

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That's just what a rich oil baron would want us to think....:gossip:

One of the selling points to me for the PP was the spoiler delete. The shape of the tail of the car already looks good and already angles the air up and away, such as it is.

If I ever have my car on a track (SCOTA) it will probably just be a parade lap, so I won't need a wing.

I will weigh in on this. I took my bone stock GT PP on a high speed run North of Vegas last year. I hit 155 mph and the car was starting to feel unstable and backed out of it. Mind you, there was a fairly strong crosswind.

I now have a front splitter and the 350 track pack spoiler and have run 140 mph on a road course and it is smooth as silk. Maybe just because of no crosswind, but I am sure the aero helped.

CB said:

It does have a spoiler. It's built into the body work.

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EXACTLY ... I was so happy that I could order my car with SPOILER DELETE since the trunk lid / quarters already have a built-in ducktail shape.

The factory 2015-17 V6-EB spoiler amounts to just a added strip of painted plastic and the GT version is only slightly more pronounced ... both take away from the car's looks more than they add IMO.

Probably why Team Mustang deleted the spoiler in the PP is it has no real function and figured people who want the PP are enthusiasts who are all for maximizing performance & function plus deleting allowed Ford to reduce PP option price.

In my case, I think I would have even paid EXTRA to delete it since I got the O-T-T stripe option and this looks soooooooo much better not going up & over the spoiler (which requires 6 pieces of vinyl tape instead of just 2).

In comparison, the new 2018 design spoiler actually ADDS something to the car ... can't yet say I think it improves the car's look since I've only seen pics but it definitely is much better than the 2015-17 EB-V6/GT spoilers.

Doug

I thought it was interesting in this video that the "Chief Program Engineer for Mustang" Carl Widmann states they worked very hard to make the new 2018 PP wing "Aero Neutral". That sounds like it's cosmetic but I could be reading too much into it.

If you skip to the 11min mark you'll hear his comments. [ame]

It might be a matter of downforce vs. drag and Ford decided to go with the latter.

im glad spoiler was deleted with PP

Billy1 said:

It might be a matter of downforce vs. drag and Ford decided to go with the latter.

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I'm more inclined to think in terms of aerodynamic balance. Too much rear spoiler or wing gives you a high speed aero 'push' that only gets worse as cornering speeds increase (think 100 mph & up kinks here). An effective splitter with not enough rear wing or spoiler makes the car aero-loose at speed.

Read about Terry Fair's aerodynamic experiments on the red S197 that was campaigned very successfully 3 years or so ago, especially where they had too much splitter relative to rear aero. Huge threads on several forums, including S197Forums.com and Vorshlag's own site. Although detail dimensions probably differ for aero balance, S550 vs S197, the same concepts apply.


Norm

Even some of the huge wings you see on cars like Porsche GT3s and GT4s make very little measurable difference in track times, no matter how much downforce they generate, even if there are some small benefits if you're taking very high speed, high-G turns.

For the most part with spoilers and wings, it's about looks... Otherwise it's just added weight and cost. And hell, I think in the S550's case, it actually looks better and cleaner without the spoiler, anyways.

RocketGuy3 said:

Even some of the huge wings you see on cars like Porsche GT3s and GT4s make very little measurable difference in track times, no matter how much downforce they generate, even if there are some small benefits if you're taking very high speed, high-G turns.

For the most part with spoilers and wings, it's about looks... Otherwise it's just added weight and cost. And hell, I think in the S550's case, it actually looks better and cleaner without the spoiler, anyways.

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The ones on Porsche's GT% cars (particularly the RS) absolutely generate meaningful and significant downforce that you can feel at speed.

BmacIL said:

The ones on Porsche's GT% cars (particularly the RS) absolutely generate meaningful and significant downforce that you can feel at speed.

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I never said they didn't generate downforce... But from what I've read, that downforce is not very meaningful to actual track times. For either Porsche GTs or most production cars.

Ford chose to add aero in the form of a larger front splitter, which either made the small rear spoiler useless or detrimental to performance.

Good discussion! Thanks, everyone.

I love the fact the PP doesn't have a spoiler. They are a ROYAL PITA to keep clean, wash and wax around.

With that said, when properly implemented...they do serve a purpose (see the GT4).