Car Spoiler

A car spoiler is a wing like accessory that is usually attached to the rear end of the cars, or normally mounted on top of a car's trunk or positioned under the front bumper. While the rear spoiler is sometimes called 'wing', the frontal car spoilers are also called 'air dam'.

Car spoiler dynamically improves the external beauty of the car making the car stand out in a crowd, making it more trendy and sporty. In automobile parlance, a spoiler is an 'aerodynamic device' that is attached to an automobile. The intended function of this device is to 'spoil' unfavorable air movement across a body of vehicle of some kind in motion.

It is customary for racing and other high performance sports cars to be fitted with spoilers. Nowadays even passenger vehicles use spoiler very commonly. To put it more succinctly, a car spoiler improves the performance of the car and even sometimes stimulates its resale value of the car.

Car spoiler types

Spoiler wings come in various shapes and sizes and in numerous designs. They could be high hooped, Supra styled, Lip spoiler or wings wrest spoilers. Most of the car spoilers come made of polyurethane. Spoilers are also made of lightweight steel while others of fiber glass. These lightweight spoilers are found to be extremely durable and do not crack, separate or sag.

Sometimes spoilers can be made of a combination of two or three dissimilar substances. Car spoilers made of 'high impact resin' display high density with extreme temperature resistance. They are super impact resistant. Generally, spoilers are purchased unpainted to facilitate the buyer paint it on an accurate color match with the car.

Mention should be made of the fact that most of the time a car spoiler is incorrectly confused with 'wings'. While automotive wings are devices whose intended design is to actually generate down force as air passes around them, the function of a car spoiler is to disrupt existing airflow patterns.

Why spoiler?

Apart from contributing to the external appearance of the car, the spoiler is very useful in making the car more fuel efficient. This mechanical accessory can make the car stable on roads. Spoiler improves vehicle stability by decreasing lift or decreasing drag that may cause unpredictable handling in a car speed. Spoiler disrupts the airflow going over a moving car thereby reducing the amount of life naturally generated by the shape of the car. Spoiler accomplishes this feat by increasing the turbulence flowing over the shape 'spoiling' the laminar flow and providing a cushion for the laminar boundary layer.

Most of the time, the car spoiler is a styled piece of fiber glass which enhances the aerodynamics of the car. Due to increase in traction a car in motion brakes, turns and accelerates with more stability. Drag increases as the speed of the car increases. It can be seen that some spoilers are effective at very low speeds often generating excessive drag while some other spoilers can work pretty well at high speeds. Some passenger cars can be seen equipped with both front and rear spoilers. Front spoilers which are found beneath the bumper are used to direct air flow away from the tyres to the under body. Rear spoilers help to modify the transition in shape between the roof and the rear and the trunk and the rear. This minimizes the turbulence at the rear of the vehicle. Some rear spoilers come with a warning brake light built into the spoiler.

Installation of car spoiler

Spoilers are not cumbersome to install. Spoilers usually come with sealing gaskets and mounting bolts and can be installed easily and quickly. But it is essential to install the spoiler with a specialized set of tools and devices as there should be no compromise on quality. It is essential that the installer has a thorough knowledge of spoilers and how to attach them to the car. Professionals normally take about 46 to 60 minutes to install a spoiler. First time installation would require a minimum of 2 hours. The installation cost is about $75 approximately.

A more recent phenomenon is to deploy roof safety spoilers to control in the event of air flowing backwards across the car. As a safety component this helps the car from leaving the surface of the racing track if it spun out at high speed. In sports cars very often front and rear spoilers are fitted. These vehicles have a more rigid chassis and a stiffer suspension to aid in high speed.