I've seen Rx8's with and without spoilers? Although most of the 8's at the dealers have them, I prefer it without and hate the idea that the dealers are just making an extra buck on a hot selling car.

Call me old fashioned, but if the car was supposed to look good with a spoiler, it should have been designed that way and come stock. Of course, the 8 is a sports car and the spoiler still looks great, unlike, say, a Camry with a spoiler. IMO, it's just unnecessary.

No biggy, just throwing it out for discussion.

P.S. Thanks to everyone here who have contributed much useful information and balanced perspectives in their opinions. I've learned some interesting things about the rotary engine that I don't think I would have even known to ask about, i.e. short drive procedures, especially redlining it before shut down.

my car has the spoiler and I like it
the manufactors will always offer extras because people have different likes and dislikes

Originally posted by starbucks
I've seen Rx8's with and without spoilers? Although most of the 8's at the dealers have them, I prefer it without and hate the idea that the dealers are just making an extra buck on a hot selling car.

Call me old fashioned, but if the car was supposed to look good with a spoiler, it should have been designed that way and come stock. Of course, the 8 is a sports car and the spoiler still looks great, unlike, say, a Camry with a spoiler. IMO, it's just unnecessary.

No biggy, just throwing it out for discussion.

P.S. Thanks to everyone here who have contributed much useful information and balanced perspectives in their opinions. I've learned some interesting things about the rotary engine that I don't think I would have even known to ask about, i.e. short drive procedures, especially redlining it before shut down.


Spoilers are not just for looks. They improve the performance of cars by reducing lift.


So, sports car don't just have them for looks, they also have them for performance as well.

I agree with starbucks. It looks much better without the spoiler, but then again I probably am old fashioned.

Just out of curiosity, at what speed would the effect of the spoiler come into play?

My spoiler is for looks
You have to be going over 100mph for the spoiler to help

i think the spoiler and appearance package make the car.

I havent seen many 8s with the arch spoiler. I much prefer the mazdaspeed spoiler.....

The stock spoiler is for appearance only, no way does it help performance or down force. Perhaps other aftermarket spoilers will help - but not this particular one.

The mazdaspeed spoiler is awesome, shame it has such a high price tag

The downforce also applies to high speed braking. Light rear end (weight shift to front with braking) with aerodynamic lift == rear wheels off the ground at high speed. That == bad out of control maybe flipping fast action.

But most of you will never ever experience anything like that on a street car. Much less a street car on a track ;)

I like the small lip spoiler they have in some markets (not north america).

Having said that, I also like the clean look of no spoiler...

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Spoiler: provides downforce to the car, thus making the car more stable thru either straight line speed or quick turn round the corners.

BUT

if one were to, say, only drive aggressively 20% of the time and the other 80% are casual driving like, to and flo work and home, fetching friends and family, going out dinner with wife/girlfriend. Would the spoiler then be actually adding on unneccessary downforce to the car, thus needing more fuel to run that engine, needing more power to run the car?

Make sense? Enlighten me.

ps I do like the Mazdaspeed spoiler alot...

Originally posted by M-ster
Correct me if I'm wrong.

Spoiler: provides downforce to the car, thus making the car more stable thru either straight line speed or quick turn round the corners.

BUT

if one were to, say, only drive aggressively 20% of the time and the other 80% are casual driving like, to and flo work and home, fetching friends and family, going out dinner with wife/girlfriend. Would the spoiler then be actually adding on unneccessary downforce to the car, thus needing more fuel to run that engine, needing more power to run the car?

Make sense? Enlighten me.

ps I do like the Mazdaspeed spoiler alot...

You're not wrong...

The Mazda add ons are mostly cosmetic, maybe a very monir improvment and therefore a very minor impact on fuel efficiency.

If you only drive in the city - you're buying a sports car because you like it - not because you get to use it.

If not for our will to differentiate our selves , the world would be driving black model T's.

Myself I like the spoiler. I think it makes the car look a little more aggressive, but not too much. Plus I really don't think it has any positive or negative impact unless you are moving fast, like 100 mph fast as mentioned above. So.. Unless you drive to and from work and through town at over 100 mph I don't think it will affect performance much.

-JiM

Another old-fashioned here, mostly don't like 'em. the more elaborate, the worse they look. For heaven's sake, don't get that gaudy x-man stuff.

Originally posted by M-ster
Spoiler: provides downforce to the car, thus making the car more stable thru either straight line speed or quick turn round the corners... That's if it is effective. Alot of spoilers on cars from the factory are purely for esthetics (haven't even been in wind tunnel testing), and aren't even effective at high speeds. A few years back, Car and driver did a test on a Mustang on a high speed track, and found that not only did the car go faster w/o the spoiler (which would be expected), but it was more stable in the straight and in the corners w/o the spoiler.

Just because a car has a spoiler on the back, doesn't mean that it's properly designed for aerodynamics.

---jps

on a humorous note - perhaps the xmen spoiler has some kind of special power...you know...make the 8 fly or something? :-)

I like that xmen spoiler and the ms one is nice but expensive

No wonder those ricers are putting big ass spoiler similar to those used on the formular 1 cars. Those wings would probably be really adding downforce to a street cars. Maybe the big ass wings are the way to go :D

i would fall under the no-spoiler camp. IMO, the RX-8 has a short trunk and thus adding a spoiler would make it look tail heavy. It would create an illusion of imbalance in the sense that the major portion of the car is on the rear wheels. If you compare the lines on the RX-8 and those of the M3 or any 3 series, you'll see what I mean. It's hard to put a good looking spoiler on the 3 series as well. On the other hand, a lip spoiler might do it.

I like the lip spoiler you can get in Europe. I found a picture from another thread.

And also this picture, the spoiler is a bit hard to see.

To piggyback on Sputnik's remarks, an effective spoiler/wing will provide more high-speed stability and (very) high-speed cornering, but also adds drag. So a massive F1-style wing on an Elantra probably does more harm than good. That'd put a damper in your 1/4 mile time, I'm sure.

As for me, I like a nice spoiler/wing on some cars (such as the FC and FD), but so far like the RX-8 with a slick back end. I don't believe I've seen one yet that I really like. I love the MS kit, minus the wing, with a small drop, and the headlight eyebrows - stunning!

Guys I dont know about you but I thinkthe top of the trunk of my Rx8 is a great ass rest. You cant experiencethat if you have a spoiler on yours!