So all of you BMW lovers; this kid I know bought a 2006 or 2007 4-door 335i and he thinks by installing a large GT wing it will instantly improve handling at Lime Rock.
His mods are; Unknown brand lowering springs, new street tires, inter cooler, and 400HP reflash.
Cossey; I know you run 1-minute lap times there with no ricer wing.
A: This kid is “special” and it wouldn’t do anything.
B: This really would be functional at Lime Rock.
C: The new Euro kids have taken the place of the Honda owner.
20-years old, never been on a track. Also owns a spray painted E30 with a fuel cell, replica CCWs that rub on the ebay coilovers, and a home made roll cage and with that he automatically classifies the car as a race car.
In my eyes I see better coilovers, better tires, and corner weighting/proper alignment being more beneficial than slapping on a $150 eBay GT wing to “make it faster”.
It won’t do any good. The E90 can’t get up to the proper cornering speeds for a wing that size to come into effect. The reason those wings exist are for cars that can corner at speed such as in the ALMS or GrandAm racing series. Without the proper tires, suspension, brakes, etc…there would be no reason for the car to have a wing. If anything, it would produce more front end lift and the car would be horrendous under braking.
With the equipment that he has, there is no way that he can achieve speeds that would benefit a GT wing. Wings of that nature are meant for cornering, without the proper equipment (which he doesn’t have) he won’t be able to use it effectively.
In what type of corner? The fast sweeper at Lime Rock, or something like turn 1?
All he would need is an M3 rear lip in my opinion. The car doesn’t have a front splitter or under body, and that would help his cause.
It’s entirely based on airflow over and under the car. For this example however, we would be discussing the over aspect.
All the large rear wing would do would be to create drag because the car isn’t as streamlined as something such as a GT car in the ALMS series. It’s all up to how well you can make a car move through the air that it’s pushing around.
