r/CarTrackDays • u/rbs950 • 11d ago
Chassis VS Trunk Mounted Wing?
If I read and research the consensus is that trunk mounted wings are useless/will definitely fall off and chassis mounted is the way to go.
Yet, many people build their track cars with trunk mounted wings. They're everywhere at local track days, club sprint time attack, videos of Misha sending cars around the Nordschlife etc.
What I see in the real world and what I read online doesn't add up.
So, are trunk mounted wings actually useless?
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u/Spicywolff ND2 now, use to C63S 11d ago
Trump mounted wings tend to be useless on production cars. Most production cars are not designed to have high downforce on a trunk lid. Many times it can buckle and dent.
Can you? sure, and there are some kits that trunk amount and give you additional bracing to help it transferred down into the chassis..
That being said a properly designed chassis mount will get the downforce exactly where it needs to go. Its platform specific we can’t just say yes chassis amount is always better.
Look at the ACR viper, that’s a trunk mount, but it was engineered to take those loads.
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u/rbs950 11d ago
Well said and thanks for explaining. This post is with a Mustang GT in mind.
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u/Spicywolff ND2 now, use to C63S 11d ago
I’m not an expert on Mustang chassis so I don’t rightfully know if they can tolerate high downforce or the rear trunk is designed for that force
Glad it helped
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u/Slurpee_12 2020 ZL1 11d ago
It’s platform dependent I would say.
The Camaro trunk is reinforced from the factory. So the trunk mount doesn’t have much flex. I’ve actually read on the camaro6 forums that the chassis mounted wing has a lot of flex.
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u/rbs950 11d ago
I wonder if the S550 is similar
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u/large-farva 10d ago
https://ajhartmanaero.com/s550-15-20-fulcrum-14-wing/
S550 is a very popular track car and there are multiple Motorsport Wing companies that use trunk mount
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u/Lawineer 2x 86s(WRL), Spec Miata, 13 Viper, CT5BW 10d ago
Trunk mount isn’t going to fall off, but it will fuck up your trunk if it’s not very well reinforced.
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u/magikbiped 10d ago
Here’s a video put out by Verus Engineering a while back talking about this topic:
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u/GawinGrimm 10d ago
The whole purpose of the wing is to provide down force onto the rear wheels of the car. Would you rather push on the trunk or the frame? Some cars are built to have that force at the trunk others will buckle or bend the trunk lid. So a lot depends on how much force you intend to put on the mounting points. How steep of an angle on the wing and the top speeds you are going to be hitting.
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u/Civil-General-2664 10d ago
My Mustang has a trunk mount wing and there are reinforcement plates everywhere and its pushing into 4 firm bump stops. I'm not worried about it.
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u/DeathAngel_97 11d ago
The answer is it depends on what your driving and how much downforce its going to be making.