I already googled to no avail, So I come to you with this question:

Does anyone know the drag coefficient of our cars?

 

.32 drag coefficient

Nifty little thing that search function...

 

that's surprisingly low. I mean, the new ones have a .28 (3.5 SE w/ spoiler), but dang. Thanks though

 

yup.. look over the old sales brochures and stuff. the 3rd gen is amazingly low on drag- especially considering the boxy front end!

 

Wow thats pretty slippery for a car from the early 90's. go us!

 

Anybody got proof if the spoilers really do anything? Matt, throw yours into a wind tunnel. If you don't, I will.

 

I know on the 5th gen (if i recall from my googling yesterday) the spoiler cut the Cd from .30 to .28

It may have been the 6th gen, i googled alot of maxs.

I was equally shocked at our low Cd seeing as my friend's Miata has a published Cd of .372. I think that may be with the soft top though. I'm sure a hard top cuts down on drag quite a bit.

 

I would be curious as to the degree of functionality of the spoiler, as well.

 

yeah me too.That is pretty low though for something back then

 

Shouldn't drag increase with the spoiler? I always thought the spoiler isn't really used to help drag, just stabalize the car which is true. But Im not sure if it increases drag at the same time. Probably does.

 

And the man with the aftermarket spoiler speaks j/k

I personaly think the spoiler does generate some downforce. This maybe a longshot assumption but, reason why I think this is cause on my old 93'GXE, on high speed the ride felt a bit loose. Could have been the softer GXE springs, but maybe not. On this new lovely 92'SE of mine, I could have swore I felt the spoiler holdin it down back there since day one. The ride just felt way more composed as the speed increased. But could have also been the stiffer SE springs. Who knows, but I don't know.. Looks like it should do at least something other then lookin fab.

 

Here's one of those old adds...

 

I was very surprised to see that too a while back. My MR2 has a coefficient of .35... I need to get the hardtop.

R32 GT-R is supposedly .40...

 

I know its a little off topic, but speaking of GTR, I saw an early 90's 5.0 'stang with some GTR badges earlier...I'd be interested in the owner's (dumb@ss) reasoning behind them.

 

Probably believes his car is worth GT class racing.

 

I personally don't think our (stock) spoiler creates any downforce if any... On a FWD car rear downforce is bad. Rear downforce (behind the rear wheels) would use the rear axle as a fulcrum taking weight off the front. Given our wheelbase, it could probably only take a pound or two off, but Nissan engineers did everything else on this car so well, I don't think they would have let the spoiler screw it up.

Chances are, the spoiler breaks up the air patterns careening down our rear glass and trunk lid and directs enough of that air upward (possibly creating a little downforce) that it does not get stuck in a drag swirl behind the relatively flat rear end. Thus, reducing the vacuum created behind the car, reducing the amount the environment resists movement (remember the air has inertia too), and reducing the overall Coefficient of Drag.

 

couldn't have said it better myself.

 

you need downforce on the rear even in a FWD car.
Think about what happens when you lose traction in the rear.
I don't know about you but I don't like looking directly at traffic coming at me (been there done that)

 

I don't get it.. Why wouldn't you want downforce on any car?

 

When you accelerate in a FWD car, you shift weight to the rear... taking weight off of the drive wheels. A spoiler aft of the rear axle will add even more weight to the rear, and take a little from the front (not as much as it adds to the rear, though).

I'm not saying that you shouldn't have a spoiler... just that on a FWD car, you'd do more good with a good, functional, front air dam.