My stock wing is about to fall off. I'm considering either a better aftermarket wing or none at all. I don't know how having no wing will affect the aerodynamics. I understand a few things. The wing will generally add downforce to stabilize the car at high speeds, but at the same time reduce the top speed. It will also stiffen the rear and improve cornering since the maxima is understeering from factory. Will the car without wing be vulnerable to "lifting" at speeds ~140? I hope someone can shed light on this issue.

 

I seriously doubt the wing on our max does anything other than add weight and take up space on the trunk.

 

I believe most factory spoilers on most cars are just for styling.

 

You need a nice Stillen Type II spoiler. They look almost stock but much better and are fiberglass instead of nerf.








It just so happens that I have one for sale . Email me if interested. Check my sig for for sale post.

 

i think somewhere it was said that nissan claims it helps increase stability over 45 mph... not sure if its true or not.

 

it keeps the *** down only a little..yes its true on the highway it help cut the wind

 

If I get a new wing it'd be a better aftermarket one. If not, I'm worried that the car would be prone to lifting without a wing at ~140. Someone correct or confirm my ignorance.

 

Why are you going 140+

 

Because it's fun. I need it from time to time.

 

god I hope you have some good tires and suspension.

 

Um let's settle this down right now. Our little pos wings don't do squat. Put it this way, Toyota had to mount a HUGE wing on the SupraTT, to get any meaningfull downforce at xxx speed. I curse the day that they introduced that wing. It was the cause of about a billion civic wet dreams since then. ugh

 

LOL @ Jeffy!!

Honestly, the wing will help, but not at reasonable speeds or enough that it would make a huge difference on the track. If there was a way to get some reasonable downforce numbers, I'd like eo try something.. maybe pull a wing off and fasten it back on under some pressure sensors or something.. but that's a lot more testing and hassle than I care about.

If you're going 140, you'd better be doing it on a track.. and I don't know of too many tracks with a 1+ mile straight, which would be required to hit 140 in out cars. most of the road courses I've been on, I MIGHT hit 110. most I top out around 100.

 

I'd like to see how many hours it takes for you to get the VG to 140

 

well... infinite when the tranny doesn't work

it only took me 1-2 miles to get my stock vg that fast... i think.

 

There's this one piece of highway near me that's a complete straight for a few miles and little traffic. I like to take it out there sometimes. Why am I better off doing it on a track? I'm concerned little about tickets, but I'd like to know if there's a reason for not doing it without a wing.

For the guys inquiring into how many days/miles it takes me to get to 140, I'll get back at you on that one.

 

hmmm concerned little about tickets. How about personal safety. Or even better the safety of others around you. It only takes a split second at 140 mph to kill yourself or worse someone else.

Pretty irresponsible if you ask me. Then again I am an adult and quit doing stupid stuff like that (I did when I was younger I am ashamed to say though).

but with that said...

buy my spoiler...The stillen type II will keep the max on the road at 200+ MPH.

 

Life's biggest pleasures are inherently connected with high risk.

Besides, 140mph isn't that fast, people in the USA are just not used to it.

 

Why do we need downforce? We are FWD vehicles. The rear will not lift. Spoilers are to increase weight on the rear wheels of a rear wheel driven vehicles to help plant the wheels thus increasing traction. I should have said this earlier. Civics have them becuase they (ricers) believe this helps them when going fast. Not really. Get some good wheels/tires, brakes, lowered suspension, and an aerodynamic kit. That helps. If your worried about keeping the rear down then put 3 15" subs, a box, and a few amps. You can't ask for anymore downforce.

IMO This subject is rediculus because tragedies occur unexpected and usually because of the need for speed. If you feel that need go autocrossing or take it to a track. 140+ can have it's ups and downs. Hopefully you don't get a slight breeze of wind. Ask a few members about travelling high speeds in a car and they found themselves rolling over. Just be safe if you do.

 

"you need downforce on the rear to keep it from swinging around to the front when manuevering and braking.
Even FWD rally cars use em."
internetautomart

 

But FWD rally cars are doing EXTREME manuevering and braking. Most street wings don't get enough speed and have the ability to do what rally cars are capable of. IMO if I am going to look like an airplane I would atleast rice the hell out of a true potential car aka 240sx, 300zx, rx-7, supra, eclipse gsr, or any other rwd or awd vehicle.

 

Oh OK I see...so killing someone else for your own pleasure is OK. I didnt realize that.

I agree that 140 isnt that fast but when someone else on the highway is only going 65 or 70 and you run up on them way too fast it can be fatal.

Hey I see no problem with going fast...Thats what race tracks are for and its fun but dont do it on a public road is all I am saying.

It is one thing to not care about your own safety but if you are on a public road you need to worry about others safety too.


Anyway I have said my peace so do what you want...I am just glad me and my family are in MS and no where close to your 140 + mph runs. I have seen way to many "good" drivers mess up and wreck but hopefully you will not be one of them.

Sorry to sound preachy but as a father of 2 and husband I worry about teenage idiots out on the road doing 140 MPH on a public road. Only because I was one of thoes teenage idiots and know how stupid they can be (I did flip a car end over end once).


oh and just one piece of advice...always check youre tires.

 

No 3-gen this side of maybe Matt93se's maxima with his suspension/brake mods has NO business even thinking about 140mph.
Can your car do 140mph? Yup
Can your car stop within a million miles at 140mph? Nope
Can your car actually do anything but a straight line at 140mhp? Nope
1st time you have to do any evasive action at 140mph, you can kiss your ****(and anyone you happen to crash into) a horrible goodbye.

If you want to go and kill yourself doing 140, go right ahead, leave my family and friends out of it please

 

I don't dnow about your state's laws but i'm pretty sure 140+ in texas is a one way ticket to jail.

 

If the motor can handle 140 then these cars are also meant to go 140. I've driven several cars and I know that the maxima can handle MUCH higher speeds than 140. I have pretty much all suspension mods available for it including every blehmco product. The car is planted at the top speed. I don't have a big brake kit, but I think it's not needed without a turbo. I prefer to max out my car once in a while. The only times I do it are late at night and low traffic highway.

Not that I feel the need to justify my actions to anyone, but I do respect you guys and your concerns. I lived in germany for a few years and 140 is normal speed at highways. It's a matter of perception.

 

IA can you please elaborate on this, swinging around as to the side or flipping?

 

Im wondering what the big deal about doin 140 in a car is. Ive done 170 on my street bike, big deal people do it all the time, so longs not on a busy highway and ur not a total meathead about it go ahead. Thats why we mod our cars no? to go fast? i can see the common vultures in here scoping new threads to come in and pick on. Im not saying 140mph should be a comon thing but i hit 125 very frequently in my vg. handles fine, and stops fine at that speed, and gets up there pretty quick too hehe.

 

I need to vent about ricer wings. I see more and more of them on the dumbest cars, ususally a DX Civic that's been debadged, lowered but wheel covers taken off so it's got the steel black wheels, and maybe a coffee can muffler. Oh, don't forget automatic. It's a great thing to have on the kind of car that's setup for it, but why aren't that don't need them being impounded, seriously, the reduced visability alone that they cause is crazy. Not to mention an aluminum wing flying through your glass in a crash...I really need that. And, to take it from a performance standpoint, why are you adding 30+ lbs of drag to your car when you don't need it! Not to mention reduced gas mileage. Of course, it's a DX Civic so it already runs on an oily rag, what's he care. Except, he probably fills up with premium, and put in a can of octane boost to be cool.

I love that mention of our spoilers being nerf. I have NEVER seen that before. I thought that was the funniest thing when I got my Max. I had no idea, I figured it was plastic, so I touch the thing and it's squishy, and I'm like "woah!" I show it to people now, and they react the same, it's hilarious. Not the strongest thing in the world is it? Mine is tight on two points, but coming lose on two others, I suspect from the trunk being opened by lifting on the thing, and breaking the attachment hardware away from the nerf.

I think we need some objectivity. It's not fair to compare North American highways to the German Autobahn. The Autobahn is setup for those kinds of speeds, having properly graded, and lower angle corners, and a progressive lane system, the highest of which is dedicated to top speed vehicles. The drivers there know how the system works, and this prevents faster cars and slower cars from having any problem. People here have literally no concept of "slower traffic keep right" and in most areas, while that's techically the system to use, it's not followed closely, nor are the provisions in place to allow for multiple lanes depending on speed. So, it's one thing to drive at high speed in Germany, it's a completely different thing to do it here, where other drivers aren't used to you flying by at high speed, and the road system itself isn't designed for it. It's also interesting to point out, that even with the generally perceived higher quality of drivers in germany, and an apparently safe high speed road system, traffic fatalities are common enough that the government actually decided it was unrealistic to reduce fatalities by increasing the safety of drivers, therefore they have one of the most advanced emergency responce systems for the highway system. When's the last time you saw someone being airlifted from a crash here? There's a dedicated air ambulance system just for the highways there. I'm not trying to take sides, just stating the facts.

The point trying to be made, is that at those kinds of speeds, any obsticle that comes up, you've already hit it, gone off the road, killed yourself, or other people, before you can properly react to it. And if you have reacted to it, chances are some of those above things have resulted due to the reaction. At the posted maxium speed of most highways, there is enough reaction time left to brake and steer effectively, or at least, effective enough to avoid too much of a serious incident. When we do have serious incidents on the highways, it is almost always due to an improper reaction from the driver at the time of an obsticle, high speed resulting in loss of control of the vehicle, or weather. So, it's not always the case, that the person driving at high speed is being safe about it. That's a nice utopean idea, but I think there's enough chlorine in the gene pool to ensure that the morons will be out there speeding as well. Therefore it's not a matter of "I do 170 on my bike all the time" making it suddenly safe. Sure, you've been safe up to now, and that's great, and I hope you continue to be safe. However, we are all human, and no matter how good we care, at some point, the question has to be asked, if I'm doing 170 on a road which I think is empty, and suddenly I come up on a jacknifed semi, or some other road blocking event, am I going to have time to react, compared to if I were doing a slower speed? Simple physics, laws which are not possible to break.

I definitely agree, that it's fun to go fast, and certainly a lot of the reason we mod our cars is to make them handle better when they're going fast, so I'm very glad that at least some people who like to go fast are doing it in cars that are upgraded, and are going about it in a responsible manor, as opposed to what I seem to see more of, which is a car flying past me at 2-3 times the speed limit, in the city, ususally at night, sometime in the rain. Wow, I'm starting to sound old, and I'm not even old, so I'll leave it at that. Maybe I'll go and drive fast now Hehe.

 

So you're suggesting that members here do illegal activities? That's reason enough to be banned from this forum, as well as it being completely stupid to do it on ANY public road. Now have I done it? yeah.. when I was young and stupid. I very rarely drive over 90 anymore on the street.


You mod them to go fastER, but that doesn't mean that you should- nor does it make it legal or safe.. I've got over $10,000 in mods on my car, yet I still get a ticket if I get pulled over. Even if I was driving a car with a full roll cage in it, I can't get out of a ticket by saying "My car is modded so I shouldn't have to obey the law"


125 isn't much different than 140. in either case, if you hit a deer you're DEAD. and we all know how fast they can jump out of the weeds on the shoulder on an otherwise empty highway...


No it doesn't- not unless you've got full coilovers, properly tuned sway bars, and Z rated tires. Eibachs and Tokicos are nice, but they're not designed for 120+mph. Neither are your stocker crap tires.

No it doesn't- not unless you've got $1500+ in brake mods- which I doubt you do.

No it doesn't. a 0.32 drag coefficient is nice, but the VG is a dog compared to cars that are designed for those speeds. they have at least 250-300hp on tap and the gearing so that you're not near redline in high gear at 150. It takes well over a mile for the VG to hit 120mph, and another mile to hit 140..

Cars designed for those speeds also have much larger brakes and a much stronger frame designed to take the impact for when they DO wreck.

So please stop telling us that a Maxima is designed for it. It's NOT. It's designed as a sporty four door SEDAN that's made to haul a family and their luggage across the country, or a businessman down the expressway with a coffee in his hand in comfort. It is NOT a sports car, and it is NOT designed for autobahn speeds.

 

lol.. ok cheif. You need to stop putting words in my mouth. First off i did not post a thread that said everyone should go fast and do illegal things. I did no say its safe either. Neither did i say when getting pulled over having mods is an excuse to go fast. Jeez did u even read what i put!? I have a full suspension kit on my car that has been profesionally installed.And yes i do have Z rated tires. so easy on the assumptions. So YES it does handle ok at over 100mph. Am i gonna hit a 90 degree turn at 120, course not. No i dont have a big brake kit, but as i said my brakes work fine. And no sh it if a deer jumped out you would be dead. Noone said differently. from a dead stop on the highway, yea my car would take a bit to get up to 120. but from 80 to 125 it takes less then a mile i can assure u that. And yes u are correct, our cars are not designed to be driven at 150, nor will mine do 150 theres not enough gear. i have a 125 speedo, and i have had it passed that but i was near redline. I think you have gotten me mixed up. I know these speeds are not safe and i dont need you to tell me this. And im not recommending doing these speeds, i think everyone knows that its not safe specially on roads here in the us, or NE at that. And who says u cant get hurt on a track either? The wings on our cars dont put enough downforce on our cars to make a difference. and there is no aerokit made for our cars thats gonna cause a vaccum under the body either for better handling, there not race cars.

 

Thanks for the thought out post. I agree that the german autobahn is built better for top speeds. It's also correct that the drivers follow a "system" moreso than here. Yet you'd be surprised how many drivers there still don't pay attention to it. My friends and I often maxed out the e-series mercedes and 7-series bmw at 160, and had to deal with drivers not respecting the fast lane. On a side note, here's a german website with tachometer shots of the cars you guys implied "are built to go over 140"..

http://www.e39.de

 

If you are going 140, you need the biggest brakes you can get. Turbo or no turbo. Turbo just means you get to 140 that much faster.

Yes in Europe, people go over 100mph all day. But the difference it people over there KNOW how to drive at those speeds. Even if you know how (I will make that assumption for argument sake), that doesn't mean that 16 yo teenage girl or that 75 yo old man knows how. They have no idea what the closing distances are like at 140. One sec, it's all clear. Another second and you are filling up their rear view mirror with the brakes on full lock because they just pulled out into your lane at 60mph. Then you will wish you had 19" brembo rotors and 12 piston calipers

 

Now thats stopping power. How many times have you been on the highway in the passing lane where some slow a-hole pops right in front of you causing you to kill your brake pads and shot the bird towards him.? It's countless. This is when your doing only 95. And that persons doing 75. Imagine doing 140 with a closing distance of about 50 ft. If you turn the wheel slightly you'll lose control or if you hit the brakes to the point where the wheels lock (exc. ABS people) your screwed. The average person takes about 2.5 seconds to react going over 80 mph. Your closing distance is now about 10 ft. The only people that might be able to handle this are those who was born and conditioned to high speeds or those who train on a daily basis at these high speeds (stock car drivers, pilots).

 

I didn't put a single word in your mouth. I read your post, quoted it word for word, and responded as I read it.
The way I read your tone, it was "I've done it before, I know what I'm doing, I'll do it again.... because my car is made for it."

Now whether you said "everyone go out and do it" or not, that's what it implies. hang around long enough to see a "what's your top speed?" thread on here, and you'll see exactly where I'm doing. a bunch of 17 yr old punks in stock Maximas trying to take pictures of themselves going faster than the other guy.. It's not only stupid on their part, but it's stupid on the poster- for egging it on. Whether you specifically said so or not, you're condoning it by posting it on a public forum.

As for the part about the car can handle it, that by no means says it's capable of it in a safe manner.. the brakes are WAY too small for this car to be doing 120+. you can maybe get one stop from that speed before the brakes are completely heat saturated and fading.. How do I know? I've done it quite a few times myself and spent many hours on the track with this car. I know the limitations of it better than 99% of the people here.. I also have a VERY highly modified suspension (which I'm not talking about because I hate getting emails asking what I'd done and how to do it on their car for under $500.). Being "professionally installed" means nothing. the grease monkey at Jiffy Lube on the corner is a "professional", but there's no way in Hades I'll let him work on my car, let alone something as vital as the suspension. Of course that's an exxageration- there are many many highly qualified suspension shops out there. but I highly doubt you've got a suspension that will allow you to swerve around Grandpa at 120 when he cuts you off... or when that deer runs out in front of you. When I'm pulling into a corner at Texas World Speedway at 115mph, I have to be VERY careful with the steering wheel not to wind up going backwards with both feet in. the car gets very twitchy at those speeds and has very little grip.


don't take this personally. I didn't pick you to flame just because you're you. I reponded to the attitude of "I'm better than everyone else becuase my car is modified and I drive this fast all the time and I know how to drive".. No, you're not-- unless you've spent a LOT of time on the track. You'd be amazed how many of those Grandpas and soccer moms you flew by have a race car in the garage. Some of the best local drivers are 60+ year old men and a few 40 & 50-something women.. who hold national SCCA Champion titles... Yet you look at them and think they're the stupid ones.

I'll shut up now, but I just want you to see the point. there's a lot of 'kids' on the board that will see posts like yours and come to the conclusion that a Maxima with springs, struts and 17s w/ Axxis pads is a race car made for high speed driving. It's nowhere near the case.

 

I'm just wondering where the picture of a 10-15 year old maxima is on that website since our cars are soooooooooooo fast

 

I have slotted brembo's and they're sufficient for most of the driving I do. I agree that big brakes are much better for top speeds, but I only do these maybe couple times a month.

Like I said before, german drivers are much more disciplined, however I've seen plenty of them cutting you off at high speeds just like here. The piece of highway I was talking about has maybe a maximum of 4-5 cars over the entire range and time I drive there. If I see 2 cars close to each other in two different lanes, I immediately slow down from far away. I only follow through if there's one car in only one lane and my foot is very close to the brake even then. The probability that a car will cut you off at night right before you're about to pass it is there, though very low. Animals jumping in there is also possible but low (unless it's an area where it's common). If I lived my life thinking about remote likelihoods it'd be extremely dull.

 

Never said that, I even stressed that 140 isn't that fast. Notice it's a german website. In germany, there are a lot of legal regulations about modifying your car. In fact, they're so tight that most people don't bother and leave it up to professional tuners (hamann, gemballa etc) that only focus on specific cars. Aftermarket support for "regular" cars, especially japanese, is almost non-existant.

By the way, look at the times in that url again. Those are 200mph figures, I was talking about much less.

 

I think that doing 140 is just plain dumb (keep in mind i turned 18 just a month ago, so i can actually speak for the youngens) 1st of all you get **** gas mileage, and 2nd no matter what time you do this unless you live in the sticks theres traffic on highways, and if you do live in the sticks the roads arent maintained. Also it takes alot longer than you think to get up to 140 (if you even can) cuz i have the VE and it starts running outa breath around 125. To get back to the original point of this post, wings are teh worst thing in the world. lets waste money on a crappy peice of aluminum that 99% of people make fun on, the other 1% are honda drivers that need to get a life.

 

I found that when hitting 5.5grand in 5th in texas, and hitting a rut could scare the hell outta ya. LOL.

 

Some people are justg no fun ay?

 

I was just being sarcastic