I good friend of mine owns an SRT-4 in CO. He has the mopar turbo upgrade that's giving him around 300 at the wheels. Anyway He and I see eye to eye and like the clean seeper look. He completely removed the wing from his car, I haven't done it yet but probalby will. While at a driveing school out there he was having issues with rear wheel hop under heavy braking into corners. The best improvment was the harder bushings which he ordered as soon as he got home but the instructor told him to put the wing back on which he did and was surprised with the effect. It did improve things, but at 80+ not 20. This is a pretty extreme case and I doubt many of us will get any gains from it (I doubt that a spoiler designed to improve the looks, not the performance of a different car with completely different aerodynamics is going to be a performance benefit for a neon but hey it's something different. Pretty intresting story from his track day. The same instructor was upset because the viper in front of him struggling to make power in the thin Colorado air refused to move over. He finally told him to pass him anyway. He got lots of inquiries in the pits between sessions. Wish I had one (tubo not a wing). For my purposes though I bet mine just add weight and creates drag.

 

If you really want to get performance out of a spoiler, you have to go with one of those tall wide aluminum/carbon fibre ones. You know the ones that everyone always makes fun of for being rice, even though as far as spoilers go they're the most practical thing out there? Only problem with those is that they tend to be cop magnets.

 

small spoilers dont do too much or front wheel drive.....but, if the srt4 is as performancy as it is, then its spoiler should have some form of use...other then looks...i just cant see a company spending the time to make such a bad *** car and doing everything right in the process, just to throw a huge non functional spoiler on it in the end......so spoilers have to make sum sort of difference, though maybe on cars that are more capable of 150mph instead of 117.

 

Actualy, as far as spoilers go.... The correct spoiler does effect handeling.
Get a really efficient one and it will effect your handeling at 20mph upwards. Of course, thats a carbon fiber 25sgft spoiler.

Hum.. Interesting comments.

The truth is, any kind of modification the the cars body will effect its handeling. Just not in a way that most people would notice. I used to race Leyland Minis in the UK and they suffored the same issues as the Neon. A low front and a high ***. Look at the profile and its almost like a wing cross section, but backwards.
For a while, I would finish in the low 10' high teens until I convinced my sponcer to let me add a 'wing' to the back of the vehicle like some of the others. It made a big differance. The fiber wing was amazingly light with aluminium mounts and a width of the vehicle +2". Plus a stabilizer blade on either side that kept the back from wobbling at speed on the straights. The final result of the mod was that I could enter and run the corners faster because the back end wasnt as light and wasnt pulling the out of the corner. I started finishing in the top 3 more often.

Its exactly the same physics for a road car as it is for a race car, or a Formula 1 vehicle... Exept an F1 wing would look kinda retarded on a road car LOL.

Heres a great observation.
Next time it rains and your on the road. Watch the water vapours come off the back of the other cars. That will give you a visual indication of how the dynamics of the car effect its speed and handeling. Youd be surprised what you see.
(especialy those retarded cadalacs with the 20" wheels and lift kits!)

 

^was someone paying attention in physics???

true any modification to aerodynamics will affect the car, but is it noticable enough to balance out the fugliness of a shopping cart handle on the back of your car? Me, im going wingless, and eventually SXT front and rear bumpers

 

LOL.

I paid attention through school.
Physics, english, math (well, kinda LOL), Music and the rest.
S'Why I get into a good college and got my 4 year degree in 3 years.

ANYWAY!
I slapped the spoiler on this afternoon... Thats another post though.

 

As far as spoiler go, the only ones I really like are the "shopping cart handles." The SRT-4 are okay. The biggest thing for me is whether it's worth having a cop magnet for the extra performance, and seeing as I can't really take advantage of the extra performance if the cops are always watching me, probably not.

 

thats a great way to look at it. as soon as my plugs get here im taking my srt wing off. attracts attention and kinda is right in the middle of my rear view, making it difficult to see easily. at first i kept looking in the rear view and at a quick glance it would look like another car on my rear until i got used to having a spoiler. never really did the spoiler thing on any of my cars (the srt is actually my first spoiler). even my SXT i got one of the two they had without a spoiler.