flickroll

I'm like Schultz, 'I know nothing' when it comes to the duck. What is the purpose? Is it for looks only? Does it provide some sort of aerodynamic advantage? I'm not trying to be a smarta**, just never have understood the duck. Thanks

Homeles

A question that cannot be answered. Individual taste.

whiteducktail

Answer: It does what the normal active wing does, except without the moving parts. There might be a loss of fuel efficiency at low speeds, but that is more than compensated for by looking better (no ugly "under the mattress" look) and by losing the moving arms/motors/wiring, etc. that can fail.

ipse dixit

Downforce

Looks

Fred2

It's a retro thing


You can read about the history here

http://rallyways.com/11256/porsche-d...oiler-history/

flickroll

Fred2, thanks for the read, it is very interesting and explains a lot. From what I have seen some folks cannot live without the duck and would not have a car without one. Looks like a pretty expensive mod. It does not do much for me but I do agree the car needs something back there. For me, on my 991.2 GTS build, I went with the sport design spoiler which adds a little flare to the spoiler over stock, but much less than the duck. Whether it is enough time will tell when the car is delivered. Who knows, maybe one day I'll be in the 'can't live without the duck' cramp. Thanks again. Below are renderings of the car I have on order with the Sport Design Kit. Unfortunately for me my car is stuck in V170 status and I have no clue when PAG will move the order forward.

LexVan

It's meant for the crowd that does not want to hear, "hey dumbass, your trunk lid is open!".

911boy

.......and, "hey Pal is your wing broken?"........

LexVan

.

911boy

^Hilar. I had a guy go to the rear to get my golf clubs.....while the car was running.

flickroll

lagodue

I'm like Schultz, 'I know nothing' when it comes to the duck. What is the purpose? Is it for looks only? Does it provide some sort of aerodynamic advantage? I'm not trying to be a smarta**, just never have understood the duck. Thanks

Basic car profile is an aileron (wing) and it will generate lift. Ferdy should have been consulting with his mates at Junkers and Messerschmidt, but aerodynamics at 50 mph were not critical at the time. Duck acts eggsackly like a spoiler on an airplane wing. Busts up the clean flow of air, thereby killing/minimizing lift.

flickroll

That's been my take on it. The design of it acts like a huge air dam and turns somewhat laminar flow across the car's profile into turbulence at the a** end. At higher speeds that would induce additional drag.

subshooter

I love the duck and fixed wing. ....but on the 991.2, there is no duck. It's a gosling or something. You need a microscope to see it.

drcollie

Spoilers and wings on street cars are for decoration and cause huge drag in a straight line. I did some instrumented testing on fitting spoilers and wings to a BMW M3 and was stunned at how much they slowed the car down above 110 mph. A small trunk spoiler cost 3 - 4 mph and wing around 6 - 8 mph at max speed.

Sure, they are great at the track if you have a race suspension and slicks or R-Comps to take advantage of the stick in the corners and now you can go 'round the corners like nobody's business, but a street car at an HPDE can't take advantage of the downforce because your suspension and tires are not up to it for the majority of owners. So if you want to spend money on your street ride and slow your car down - by all means put one on.

The rear pop-up spoilers that come up at speed help keep the rear from lifting on cars that tend to do so which is why your Porsche has it. First generation Audi TT's became unstable over 110 mph causing many severe crashes (and five deaths) were attributed to that lift so that started the real trend of activated spoilers in the German cars that routinely hit those speeds on the Autobahns.