Reverse Rice-ology (SlickAuto.net APR GTC-200 inside)
 

Hustler, you need this. (excuse my shitty photos, I possess neither an SLR nor the skills to use one)

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APR GTC-200. I can feel a difference at 50mph. Instead of struggling to lay power down in 3rd exiting slow stuff, it just STICKS. I have to consciously try to power-over exiting corners or else it just pushes from the apex out. It's unreal. I need to build a big front splitter to balance it out, though.

The really nice part is that this is the first official Miata-specific version of this wing, instead of just their universal wing. The Miata-specific setup mounts at the very edge of the trunklid:

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so you don't have to dick around with huge support braces or anything. The wing presses directly down onto the edge of the trunklid.

Big props to Jeff at SlickAuto.net for delivering it to Willow Springs this morning and for getting it together in time for the event. Even on total junk for rubber, I managed to eek out 2nd place out of 5 in the Unlimited class of the Miata Challenge event.

did you adjust it any to see if there's a huge difference in downforce between different settings?

pretty cool man, though lots of people will think you're the typical ricer and have it on there to look cool on the street lol

:giggle: Pretty cool. Even if it is a huge wing. Wouldnt have imagined that much of a difference in downforce. Maybe at 80+, but not at 50. As long as it helps times, thats all that matters. It even looks better than most monster wings Ive seen.

+1 to the above. I would feel bad if I had to drive it on the street. I know I laugh at people with wings. You going to take it off between events or use it all the time?

Is that a GTM next door...? :jerkit:

$?

hardtop needs more peanut butter

Nice! If its functional, then it isn't rice. Was the trunklid edge bent from the mounting and the drag?

Edit: That white Miata is clean!

Trunklid edge bent a little to contour to the mounts. My crap photo sort of makes it look worse than it is. I did adjust it to see what the difference was, but mostly to remove downforce since the car was pushing at anything over 70mph. It went from scary 4th gear oversteer to annoying understeer, if that's any indication of how much it did.

I am going to get a second trunklid for street use.

$725. Sounds like a lot, but it's carbon fiber and they post their CFD data. For a 200whp track-driven Miata, it's worth every penny. 5 cars in Unlimited class, the top 3 had this wing on.

Cool! Congrats on your finish! Anything that drops your times is worth it. Are you going to do a more aggressive alignment to compensate for the wing?

I'll have to see how the tire wear works out. I don't anticipate it being necessary.

I like it Sav, wings like that got a bad rap after all the F&F ricer crap that has been rolling around for the past couple of years, but they do have their place. Was it strange to feel the handling change as the downforce built up?

It is an odd feeling. There are a couple of places where I would slide the car a little on exit, and then even though I was still on power the rear end would just magically settle down all on its own. Very eerie.

Very nice

I read a while back about Jaguar adding a small spoiler lip to the rear of one of their cars to help "settle" the rear end at high speeds. It added a couple of hundred lbs. to the rear end at 120mph, but that leveraged the front of the car upward and caused air to get under it. Net result was a couple hundred lbs. of lift in the front at 120mph with terrible understeer. They had to make adjustments to the front to remedy the problem.

The law of unintended consequences?

I'm not a fan of street wings, but on a race car? Hell yeah. Get your grip.

that thing is so huge :)



^^

what is the front of the car doing with this week at say 30 and 80mph? I'm interested in one, but not sure about downforce in the front. I need to get a spare trunklid for "trackmode." Is there a cheaper option out there? I'm saving for a house right now, and trying not to spend any more cash on the miater.

Why not just bolt the wing to the hard top? This way it pushes down on the middle of the car and it balances out nicely.

ever think about some canards? :)

Thanks for posting up this feedback, Sav. I really need to test a wing. It's another part I have to add to the test list.

I can imagine how much more stable the car felt. I had the opportunity to crew for Matt Andrews a month ago. He was testing some tires at MSR and had to do it on an HPDE day. They put him in the advanced group and he was raping every car on track. Most of the cars on track were C5/C6 vettes, various porsches, various high hp mercedes, etc. His car just sticks!

Sav, Did you track the car on the Advan's or 6ul's?

I ran a big ricer wing for a test weekend (with alignment changes) when motorola cup was considering them as legal and it made a huge difference in entry and cornering speeds. We were gaining mph on straights preceded by high speed turns, but losing mph on straights preceded by slow turns at Rd Atlanta. Still showed quicker lap times with it. And we were quicker with it at Daytona. And it was awesome in a sprint I ran in the rain Rd Atl making a huge difference in traction under power on the rear.

And this was a ricer jdm wing too. The biggest problem with the cheap wings is the amount of drag they create due to the large radius on the trailing edge vs. a sharp edge.

The other issue was mounting it to the trunk. The wing compressed all the weather stripping and the sheet metal which changed it's approach angle to the oncoming air. The photo above is better mounting at the edges, but not ideal. It needs to be mounted solid - so thru the trunk and to the "frame rails" in some manner. Think prototype/formula where it's bolted to the gearbox.