987 Spoiler question

[Bob Z.]

There is Black cover around the base of the spoiler on my 987S, which you can see when the spoiler is up - what is it for? And can it be removed?

[Quickurt]

Originally Posted by Bob Z.

There is Black cover around the base of the spoiler on my 987S, which you can see when the spoiler is up - what is it for? And can it be removed?

It is actually a part of the "spoiler" as far as air deflection is concerned.
It can probably be removed, if you think it will look neater. I doubt seriously any difference in rear downforce would result, as I doubt there is much downforce anyway. The air flowing through the gap between the body and the top of the spoiler may make noise.
The spoiler is not a wing and gets it's downforce from directing the air up at the rear of the car, very much like the original duck-tails of early Carreras. The later 911 variant whale-tails sort of combined the effects of the duck-tail with some wing effect at the outer edges.
I've seriously watched for any tell tale signs of downforce with the rear spoiler going up at 75, but be real, I haven't been able to distinguish anything.

[renzop]

That's the spoiler! Without it you just have the body colored piece which really does nothing aerodynamically. The black section is what pushes the airflow up thereby producing downforce.

[Bob Z.]

Regardless, can the Black section(s) be taken off and if so, how?

In the future, I may decide to replace it with the one that Zeintec is coming out with next month (as per past conversations with them) - it will look similar to the Cayman spoiler and go up & down.

[Jeph]

Just for clarification, a spoiler doesn't produce downforce. It reduces lift. It's actually not the same thing, though produces similar results.

Jeph's Spoiler Tip
Don't mess with it. Porsche knows what they're doing... and you may not realize it until you've messed with it at 75+ speeds.

Originally Posted by Quickurt

I doubt seriously any difference in rear downforce would result, as I doubt there is much downforce anyway.

I beg to differ. Porsche doesn't seem to employ random gimmicks (especially for appearance's sake). Also, take it up to 100+mph and let me know how it goes.

[Quickurt]

Originally Posted by Jeph

Just for clarification, a spoiler doesn't produce downforce. It reduces lift. It's actually not the same thing, though produces similar results.

Jeph's Spoiler Tip
Don't mess with it. Porsche knows what they're doing... and you may not realize it until you've messed with it at 75+ speeds.


I beg to differ. Porsche doesn't seem to employ random gimmicks (especially for appearance's sake). Also, take it up to 100+mph and let me know how it goes.

I've had it well over 100 mph and have put the spoiler up and down manually. I can "feel" no difference in basic handling. A stop watch on track may tell me otherwise. I would also think it will make more difference on a Cayman as they have much cleaner air-flow to the spoiler.

Originally Posted by Quickurt

I've had it well over 100 mph and have put the spoiler up and down manually. I can "feel" no difference in basic handling. A stop watch on track may tell me otherwise. I would also think it will make more difference on a Cayman as they have much cleaner air-flow to the spoiler.

How did you make it go down? Impossible on the 987. Unless you did some type of a wire hack.