Ok, oh Wizards, what is the real skinny on a deck lid-mounted wing such as the APR unit. I know that the best (spelled: only) wings have massive mounts that bolt directly to the chassis. They're also well over $3 Large and I don't have that in my budget. But, however silly and unnecessary, I lust after a wing. I've seen a vid that appears to show a Corvette hauling *** down a straight - no idea the speed - and the wing departs the back taking parts with it and pitching the Vette into the dirt.
So, to the question. Are the APR-style surface mount wings safe? I do just mild tracking (< 140 mph) and mostly just spirited street hooliganism.
Is the wing safe?
Hope You Can Provide Some Adult Supervision,
RD

 

What is your end goal in adding the wing? Unless you are going to aerodynamically tune your car in a wind tunnel using the wing, with a front splitter, and other items for better downforce, only adding a wing could be counter productive.
Good Luck

 

Thanks for the comment. I used to road race a Porshe 73 Carrera RS (a tribute replica out of a '69 911) and found that the addition of the "duck-tail" did wonders for the corners. My fallback is a C6 ZR1 spoiler. Whadaya think?
RD

 

Wing needs to be bolted to the chassis if you want it to work, and not flimsy plastic parts alone like just bolted to the top of hatch deck instead.

As for C6 Z07 type spoiler, not a fan, since it increases the vacuum on the back end of the car even worse, which just makes the rear end a worst drag chute instead.
Skip to 1:10 to see the vacuum void problem with a duct bill type rear spoiler (lack of infill from the air existing the from under the car), that increased drag and makes the car drastically slower top end isntead.

Simply put, C6 in all models, has lift at speed, so step one is to reduce the amount of air from coming under the car to begin with, and regards to air flow exiting the back end and still gaining down force there, wing does the best job since it still allows the best back end car air flow infill to reduce drag (air has to flow off the back end cleanly, or you just build up a pressure wave increase on the front end).

 

Did you ever do anything? I'm in the same place you are. Usually under 140 on the track, and want one for the looks as well as the downforce. Let me know what you came up with.

 

Thanks for posting this! Not to hijack this thread, but while I only have the smaller OEM style ZR1 spoiler (not the taller extended version tested in this video), I have nonetheless noticed that the back of the car gets dirtier than it did with the small OE one.
Also, I 'felt' zero difference after adding it (max track speed 150).

Having said that, I also added this small splitter with its tiny undertray at a later time Chevrolet Corvette C6 Z06 Front Air Dam Version 2 w/ Bumper Reinforcement 2006-2013 ( Z06 / Grand Sport only) (aprperformance.com) . I can most definitely feel the car is more planted at max speed. Not quite as twitchy/light.

One thing that I wonder about is how different the airflow over the car is, with side windows closed vs open (track days).

 

ZR1 style rear spoiler for a street car ... 'looks' only

 

I have the APR deck mounted wing on my C7 GS. It has two large carbon fiber plates on the underside of the deck lid plus steel reinforcing spacers inside the deck lid. I believe the C6 version is similar. It has regularly seen speeds in excess of 150mph. One benefit of my 2019 GS is the Performance Data Recorder (PDR) also records suspension data such as ride height. Comparing data "before wing" to data "after wing" on the same track at the same speeds clearly shows the wing is working. It starts to work at speeds as low as 60 mph. The other thing to consider is that since the wing is pushing down on the back of the car, the nose of the car rises unless you add a front splitter. You can crutch that a bit with ride height adjustments but it won't be perfect.

Blue lines are with the wing.
Red lines are no wing

I highlighted one of the areas where you can see I carry more speed (T8/T9) with the wing vs without. The GPS speed that's listed is in another corner, about 1/2 way through. Once I got confident with the wing, the "wing speed" was >142mph vs the 138 shown

The middle set of lines is the front ride height. Note that the front rides higher at speed (blue line above the red line) with the wing.

The bottom set of lines is the rear ride height. Note that the rear rides lower due to down-force from the wing (blue line below the red line).

For edification, the pic is of the car in question

 

This is on point. Once I added the APR wing to my Viper, I was able to gain a whopping 7mph on the final corner at Willow Springs. For those that say they're just for looks, they obviously talking BS, they are not for looks, if anything I don't like the look but I'm all about function over form. OP clearly stated he does tracking up to 140mph, but some Vette owners assume everyone else is like them and just street the car and never take it to the track.

 

96GS#007,
I was an airline pilot by trade but an engineer by training, and, therefore, I really appreciate your scientific and in-depth analysis of the deck-mounted wing. Frankly, I cannot afford the chassis-mounted wing, and even the deck-mount is a spendy item. I am not racing right now other than in Solo, perhaps Time Attack, so while I am driven (pun unintentional) to increase downforce, like all or most of us, I must engage in cost/benefit thinking. I will certainly include your data in my decision-making.
Sincerely,
Rob Dorsey, '07 Base

 

This is a shot of the reinforcement plates on my C7. C6 should be similar. Figured I’d post a pic since it seems there aren’t a lot out there that show the underside. I guess they’re too boring vs the wing shots.