psychoideas

I read that's why the bigger ones like the turbo tray spoiler had the rubber lip around the edge.

After you've cut the pedestrian's legs off at the shins with the front bumper and they fly over your roof spraying your windscreen with blood, (why the washer reservior holds ten litres) you don't want them banging their heads on the hard edge of a spoiler on the way down.

Frank

TR6

That's hilarious! On a serious note, I do know from swapping my RS 3.8 spoiler out for the original RSA spoiler with the massive rubber lip around it that the OEM RSA wing is heavier than my RS 3.8 wing. All of the weight seems to be in that rubber lip.

Heirsh

If you back into a pedestrian (or tail swing them) they will bend over the bumper and strike the spoiler next. I can imagine it snapping their neck or any number of awful things. I didnt read anything this specific, but I bet its easily replicated. Anyone want to volunteer to be the pedestrian?

stuart1997

My old 911 had a whale tail you do get tired of them after a while.
After a few months the novelty wears off and you hanker for the nice clean looks of the early 911`s and also your car becomes a magnet for the boy racertypes in thier modded hatchbacks who want to race you at every opportunity.
When i frequented pelican forum the coolest mod was to replace the whaletail with a plain decklid from an earlier car or fit a less obtrusive ducktail or if you were really cool adapt and fit the 964 electric spolier

GG Allin

My spoiler is off my RSA right now for cleaning and buffing purposes, I weighed it. It's 23 lbs. I would like to switch over to the retractable spoiler. That way the car would be more like a "real" RS.

TR6

One thing though is that the spoilers really do have a significant influence on handling and stability at speed and there is a difference in the effect depending on which spoiler you fit. I cannot speak about the pop-up because I've never driven with one, but I can compare the RS 3.8 wing with the RS America OEM wing (which is similar to the turbo wing). I really can feel a subtle difference between these two wings at 80 miles per hour. The RS 3.8 wing provides much more downforce and the car feels much more firmly "planted" to the pavement. Since I swapped to the RSA wing a week ago, I've noticed a little more light feeling overall at speed (75 to 100 mph). The car doesn't feel as firmly planted. Seems to drift just a little more. Not bad by any means, but it is perceptible. My problem, according to a buddy that races his RSA, is that I started out with the 3.8 wing and got spoiled. He told me that if I'd started out with the OEM RSA wing to begin with, I would think it feels very stable.

garrett376

Greg - make sure your car is aligned correctly - at 80mph you shouldn't have any difference in stability that you can actually feel - especially on normal roads that are mostly straight (assuming freeways are probably the only place you can go upwards of 80mph). Maybe your rear shocks are dead, or alignment is off, which is why a big wing made it seem more stable.

The reason I say this, is that driving with your sunroof open, or windows open, or even driving a cabrio (which has screwed up aerodynamics with the top open) will have a much greater effect on aerodynamics at 80mph yet these situations don't make the car any less stable.... just a thought...

911URGE

Ive read somewhere the retractable tail was due to a survey of customers. IIRC, ROW customers preferred the no wing look but Porsche wanted the functionality of a wing available. The retractable wing was the compromise.

I like to put my wing up after spirited driving to assist in engine cooling. Seems (to me anyway) more heat dissipates with the wing up.

CanyonBlaster

I was not actively considering the pop-up spoiler when I was looking for my first 911, I just knew I wanted to buy the newest and best one I could find.

As it turns out I love the pop-up! It is already one of my favorite things about the 964 (among many). I really like the clean lines of the classic 911 shape (on a street car anyway) but also like the extra downforce.