My modified stock rear spoiler

[Dragon]

I had my rear spoiler modified by Body Shop Kobiyashi in Tokyo. Added 16cm's to each side and they made me custom wing tips in carbon as well...

Before and After Pics:




I also got their new front splitter as well, but I'm holding off on putting it on the car for the moment. I will soon be installing a TVS supercharger and new clutch etc and I think it may cause issues with getting it on the 4 post lift that I'll be using.

[Amarao]

Looks great, it should've came that way stock. Which roof is that?

[Certified Lotus]

Looks cool. Let us know how it performs on the track.

I always wondered why Lotus made such a small wing for the Exige.........guess it had to do with auto regulations in North America and Europe or they just didn't want anymore downforce on the car.

Dragon, I do have a suggestion for you, install the dual tube pneumatic cylinder lifts on your rear lid over the engine to stabilize the wing at high speed. I have the ReVerie CF 1245MM Wing mounted on my car's rear lid and it was unstable at speed until I installed the "lifts" (Lotus sells them for the cup cars I think). They prevented the wing from vibrating as the stock set-up really only has the center post locking pin to hold the lid down (plus the 2 hinges at the top). With the two "lifts" you have more support across the rear deck. I know it adds some weight, but the wing doesn't move anymore.

The added "cool factor" is when you pull the release the engine lid it rises up automatically to expose the engine bay.

[Dragon]

Originally Posted by Certified Lotus

Looks cool. Let us know how it performs on the track.

I always wondered why Lotus made such a small wing for the Exige.........guess it had to do with auto regulations in North America and Europe or they just didn't want anymore downforce on the car.

Dragon, I do have a suggestion for you, install the dual tube pneumatic cylinder lifts on your rear lid over the engine to stabilize the wing at high speed. I have the ReVerie CF 1245MM Wing mounted on my car's rear lid and it was unstable at speed until I installed the "lifts" (Lotus sells them for the cup cars I think). They prevented the wing from vibrating as the stock set-up really only has the center post locking pin to hold the lid down (plus the 2 hinges at the top). With the two "lifts" you have more support across the rear deck. I know it adds some weight, but the wing doesn't move anymore.

The added "cool factor" is when you pull the release the engine lid it rises up automatically to expose the engine bay.

I've actually wanted to get the dual struts for a while, however sourcing them and the mounts has been an issue. I think if one of the shops made up a nice kit there would probably be a decent market for it. If you can pm or post the details of where you got yours from I would appreciate it..

[Amarao]

Certified Lotus, where did you purchase those "lifts" from?

[Dragon]

Originally Posted by Amarao

Looks great, it should've came that way stock. Which roof is that?

The roof is stock with the fiberglass scoop molded in to it and then repainted.

Edit: I tried linking pics from the body shop that I have work on my car's blog, but they were blocked. This is the direct link to it so you can see pics of the process....
They really liked the BOE Tow bar BTW..

Yahoo!¥Ö¥í¥° - ÈĶⲰ¤µ¤ó¤Î¥·¡¦¥´¡¦¥È from OKINAWA

I'm not sure who the manufacturer of the scoop is though... I saw a couple cars at Fuji Circuit with this done and told BSK I wanted one and they found it for me. I'll see if I can find out who makes these for those interested, but it would probably be easier and cheaper if one of the guy here on the forum could make them...

[Amarao]

That's pretty slick.

[Darth G-F]

I think it looks good!

But if the goal was downforce, the stock wing is a bad design. I think the designers won the battle over the engineers when they chose that wing.

When you want real downforce, the choices are limited. But the flappy stock with with it's small chord, high angle of attack and overall bad design (for DF) is just a bad at making downforce but good at creating drag.

Reverie created a car with 3 times the DF even if the car had flared wheel archs and an exhaust going through the diffuser (the reference car had over the diffuser exhaust and no flared wings) and the the penalty was 14% more drag. If their car had come equipped with regular arch and over the diffuser exhaust, increased drag would have been even lower.

What I'm saying is I hope you chose to modify the stock wing for its looks and not its effectiveness. The stock wing produce around 40lbs of df at 100mph... and a lot of drag.

[Certified Lotus]

Originally Posted by Amarao

Certified Lotus, where did you purchase those "lifts" from?

You can order directly from Lotus. The part is identified as dual struts.

[Dragon]

Originally Posted by Darth G-F

I think it looks good!

But if the goal was downforce, the stock wing is a bad design. I think the designers won the battle over the engineers when they chose that wing.

When you want real downforce, the choices are limited. But the flappy stock with with it's small chord, high angle of attack and overall bad design (for DF) is just a bad at making downforce but good at creating drag.

Reverie created a car with 3 times the DF even if the car had flared wheel archs and an exhaust going through the diffuser (the reference car had over the diffuser exhaust and no flared wings) and the the penalty was 14% more drag. If their car had come equipped with regular arch and over the diffuser exhaust, increased drag would have been even lower.

What I'm saying is I hope you chose to modify the stock wing for its looks and not its effectiveness. The stock wing produce around 40lbs of df at 100mph... and a lot of drag.

No circuit here in Okinawa, but I do hit up AutoX once a month. Typically you don't get enough speed for down force to matter on the courses we do here, so it was more of a looks decision. It would definitely how ever be nice to get a bit more down force for my jungle road runs on the north end of the island though. There is a 150 km stretch of windy road here with a good 300+ curves of every design possible that I like to hit up on occasion.. A little more bite would definitely ease the nerves on some of those more difficult turns.

Couple more comparison shots...

[madden]

wow your car is amazing, cant wait to see the splitter on there!
I do like it without stripes though

[Dragon]

Originally Posted by madden

wow your car is amazing, cant wait to see the splitter on there!
I do like it without stripes though

Yea I'm kind of iffy on the stripes yet myself... I like them but then at the same time I think they're a little too much with all the other parts on the car... I've been getting mixed opinions from others as well. Some love them and others not so much. Nobody to date has expressed any extreme disliking to them though... For the time being I'm going to live with them for a bit and see if the grow on me. If they don't then they shouldn't be too hard to remove.