How many guys are running a front spoiler on the front of their GS for aero dynamic advantages? and.....which is better the ABS Plastic or the fiberglass? Any body know the difference in weight, appearance, durabilty etc? Any warnings of which type to stay away from?
well the abs plastic version is ofcourse going to be lighter,and from what i understand if from some reason it cracks/breaks abs plastic isnt fixable...so i'd go with fiberglass as its more durable.. i'll probly go with one just hope when i get 245s up front it wont rup the baffle..
Does anybody have any pictures of their cars with a ABS Plastic version? I am curious if the appearance is different than the fiberglass.
We own NOS ABS, ABS repro and a fiberglass front spoiler. I have not weighed them but I believe I might disagree about the weight. Most of the fiberglass ones I have seen are thinner and unfinished on the backside and lighter than the ABS. For sure I would say they are lighter than the ABS repros which I would say are heavier than NOS. The ABS units are finished on both sides whereas the fiberglass ones we have owned are finished on the front and rough on the backside.
I have interviewed Ron Frakes who designed the spoilers for the GSX and he indicated that the front spoilers WITH the baffle do improve performance. The spoiler helps to split the air and the baffle reduces engine compartment pressurization which keeps the nose lower. Biggest benefit was stability and gas mileage at higher speeds.
He is here for the winters, which reminds me, I haven't seen him this year. Hope everything is OK with him. That is how we met him. He "yelled" at Mike T. for not having his front spoiler on his GSX. His first words were "I didn't put that front spoiler on there for nothing!"
Jim, I believe he still lives in Michigan. He bought a 70 GSX, and a few years back bought one of my spoilers for his car. When he was looking it over, he said mine looked just like the one he built. It was the nicest compliment I could have received. Duane PS. Dave, I talked with him a few months ago and he was doing fine.
Keith, I have been running the front spoiler for a good number of years now, the stiff fiberglass kind. Can't tell you which is better, but I can tell you regardless the front spoiler works. Way back might have been mid 1990's at the GS Nats I removed the spoiler for 3 passes and later in that same day replaced it and the car actually picked up a few hundreds on a average between all 6 passes. I have to dig out my old NE Chapter Newsletters as I wrote an article on the time gains, and have the exact difference. My trap speeds back then was in the low 120's One difference from watching the car on video was the car was plowing the air (nose higher than the rear) while mid track on. Yet with the spoiler and baffle the car is even with the rear height at mid track on. The front spoiler and baffle catches the air and pulls and keeps the nose down. The last gain was from Rob Chilenski who stated he picked up a solid clean 1 mile per hour by having the front spoiler, baffle and completely sealed grille and headlighte area. His trap speeds in the mid 130's at the time. So I would definitely say that it does make a difference.
I broke mine off on a return road once and the runs after that (same day) were .5-1 mph slower and noticeably less stable on top end..... 125 mph or so Bruce BQUICK JAGUICK
No.....75/80. I goosed it to coast down the return road with the motor off. A little too much goose combined with a ROUGH return road. Alot of cars and dragsters scraped.......and cursed!:rant: :laugh:
Just my .02, but I put a fiberglass/baffled one on my car and really didn't see any "performance" gain. Unless it's the same gain as a ricer putting all those stickers, scoops, fart can exhausts, and rear wing on their car's. But it does look nice.
my 2 cents...i have the repro spoiler that feeds air into the carb through the two hoses on my 10:50 full wheight drag car...with a flat hood.
Phillip: With more mph you'd notice a gain. I think they really start becoming effective at the 100mph mark. You're there but for very short amount of time before you go through the lights. With speeds of 120 mph and above the gain would be noticeable.
