25 greatest road car rear wings and spoilers
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Winging it
© FordSpoilers aren’t great if somebody ruins the ending of a TV series you are binge-watching, but from a motoring perspective, a spoiler can be a thing of beauty. We should point out that spoilers and wings are two different devices. A spoiler is designed to reduce lift and improve aerodynamics, while a wing serves to increase downforce. A nutshell guide in the extreme, but it provides a little context. Read on to discover what has made our shortlist.
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Ford Sierra RS Cosworth
© FordIn 1985, when Ford introduced this whale-tailed blue-collar hero, the Sierra was transformed from a family motor into a homologation special. If nothing else, that huge spoiler perched on the back of the RS Cosworth acted like a beacon for would-be car thieves, and an object of desire for young and impressionable car fans. Later, Ford upped the ante once again with a two-piece arrangement on the RS500.
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Ford Escort RS Cosworth
© FordFord became synonymous with wild body kits and ‘in-yer-face’ rear wings and spoilers. The Escort RS Cosworth – which was actually based on the Sierra Sapphire RS Cosworth platform – picked up where its curvaceous predecessor left off, complete with a double rear wing. This was no mere cosmetic exercise: the whale tail provided a huge amount of downforce at high speeds and its design was the result of endless hours of development in Ford’s German wind tunnels.
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BMW 3.0 CSL ‘Batmobile’
© BMWWe’re keeping this gallery free of motorsport and aftermarket DIY creations, but homologation specials are fair game. Take the BMW 3.0 CSL. It’s iconic in its own right, unquestionably one of the greatest motorsport-inspired cars of all time. But the ‘Batmobile’, of which only 39 were ever made, took things to a new level. Feast your eyes on the deep front air dam, then move to the left, past the fins perched atop the front wings, past the roof spoiler and then, boom, that enormous rear wing. That’s the point at which your chin hits the floor with an almighty thud.
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Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evolution II
© Mercedes-BenzAnything BMW can do, Mercedes-Benz can do, er… bigger. If the 190E 2.5-16 Evolution II looks wild today, just think what it must have looked like when unveiled at the 1990 Geneva Motor Show. From its chin spoiler to its 17-inch alloy wheels, the Evo II was a world away from the regular 190E. The highlight, of course, was the huge, manually adjustable rear wing, designed to keep this 155mph DTM car for the road on the straight and narrow. A total of 502 units were produced, each one finished in blue-black metallic.
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Lamborghini Countach
© LamborghiniSome people will prefer the purity and simplicity of the original Lamborghini Countach, and that’s their right. Indeed, the LP400 is so effortlessly beautiful, you’d swear it was sculpted by an artist. An optional V-shaped wing first appeared on a Walter Wolf Countach, improving stability, but reducing the car’s top speed. As the Countach matured, the rear wing became Lamborghini’s equivalent of that other ’80s favourite: shoulder pads.
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Honda Accord Type R
© Classic.Retro.Modern.The rear wing on the Accord Type R might not be the biggest or the most outlandish example you’ll ever see, but it warrants a place on our list by virtue of the sheer madness of the thing. It’s hard to think of a more conservative car than the Honda Accord, yet here is a Type R that’s able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Integra and Civic versions. Even with that BTCC-style rear wing, the Accord Type R oozed Q-car appeal, but it had an ability to show a BMW M3 a thing or two. The wing was a delete option from the factory, but fortunately the majority of owners chose to keep it.
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TVR Sagaris
© TVRTVR’s final model was perhaps its very best. The Sagaris appeared to have it all: the theatre and excess we’d become accustomed to during TVR’s twilight years, along with an ability to keep pace with any self-respecting supercar. On the face of it, the transparent rear spoiler, complete with machined-aluminium posts, looks like another example of TVR letting its hair down. But it served a purpose: giving the driver an unobstructed view of the car they had just overtaken.
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Ferrari F40
© FerrariIn Ferrari’s own words, the F40’s integral full-width rear wing ‘presented the ultimate eighties power statement’. That it looked the part was in no doubt, but it also helped to keep the F40 glued to the road at speeds up to 201mph.
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McLaren P1
© McLarenThe McLaren P1 has what is arguably one of the most beautiful rear wings of the modern era. It was part of an ‘active aerodynamics’ programme, designed to produce more downforce than any road car at the time. The moveable front and rear wings produced up to 600kg of downforce in Race mode, while the rear wing incorporated an F1-style Drag Reduction System (DRS), which reduced the angle to zero degrees when a button is pressed, cutting drag by 23 percent.
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Dodge Charger Daytona and Plymouth Superbird
© GoodwoodSome folk believe – wrongly, as it happens – that the rear wing on the Dodge Charger Daytona was placed so high above the deck to allow the boot to open. As Steve Lehto discovered, however, the 23-inch wing was so positioned to place it into clean air. ‘The fact that the trunk also happened to open at the height is happenstance. And if you want to argue with that, go ahead. You’re not arguing with me. You’re arguing with the engineer who put it there, John Pointer, and The King, Richard Petty,’ wrote Lehto.
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Porsche 993 GT2
© Porsche 993Sure, the whale tail of the Porsche 911 Turbo is as iconic as the ‘Fuchs’ alloy wheel, but we’ve chosen a trio of later editions. Starting with this: the Porsche 993 GT2. The adjustable rear spoiler featured inlets at the side that force-fed air into the engine. It’s like the original whale tail, only more alluring and with even more purpose.
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Toyota Supra
© ToyotaThe fourth-generation Toyota Supra was unveiled at the 1993 Chicago Motor Show. It was a supercar in all but name, with the ability to outpace a Porsche 911 Turbo and a formidable track record in motorsport. At its heart was a 3.0-litre straight-six engine – naturally aspirated or turbocharged – while aerodynamics played a key role in its impressive performance. The high-rise rear wing was an option.
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Dodge Viper ACR
© DodgeThe Dodge Viper ACR was powered by an 8.4-litre V10 engine developing 645hp and 600lb ft of torque. Almost everything was turned up to the max, from the huge tyres to the massive brakes, not forgetting that rear wing. A 70-inch-wide wing was fitted as standard, but a 73.9-inch version was available as part of the Extreme Aero Package. It cost $6,900 and also featured an extreme front splitter, extreme bonnet, extreme rear diffuser and that exposed weave extreme wing spoiler. Did we mention extreme?
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Subaru Impreza P1
© SubaruA massive rear wing and the Subaru Impreza go together like strawberries and cream. Even the most recent WRX STI featured an attention-grabbing wing perched atop its boot lid. The Impreza back-catalogue is loaded with suitably large wings, including the 22B and one of our favourites, seen here: the P1.
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Porsche 996 GT3
© PorscheWe’ve included the Porsche 996 GT3 simply because of its curled rear wing. It’s not the most outlandish or outrageous, but for originality it’s hard to top.
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Toyota Celica GT Four
© ToyotaThe coolest thing about the Toyota Celica GT-Four is that it was available with a set of ‘riser blocks’, allowing you to raise the height of the rear spoiler, WRC-style. You’d probably want to remove them if you were visiting your girlfriend’s parents for the first time.
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Pagani Zonda 760RS
© Salon PriveThe rear wing perched on the back of the Pagani Zonda 760RS wouldn’t look out of place on an Italian fighter jet. It’s a one-off, so it should be excluded from our gallery, but Zondas were hardly mass-produced. And it’s more extreme than the two-piece design found on the Zonda S.
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Aston Martin Vulcan
© Aston MartinThe massive rear wing on the Aston Martin Vulcan is actually wider than the car itself, so do take care when parking this £1.8 million supercar. Not that parking should be an issue, because the Vulcan is strictly track-only.
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Honda Civic Type R Mugen
© HondaThe current Honda Civic Type R features a large rear wing, but it’s not a patch on the FN2 Mugen. Only 20 were made, each one sporting a ‘look-at-me’ rear wing that added some much-needed aggression to a relatively tame-looking hot hatch.
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Toyota GT86 Aero
© ToyotaThe Aero pack, available on the Toyota GT86, was a definite nod to the fourth-generation Toyota Supra, right down to that dominant rear wing. For an additional £5,000, GT86 owners were also treated to 18-inch alloy wheels and a body kit.
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Koenigsegg One:1
© KoenigseggThe active rear wing on the Koenigsegg One:1 is a clever piece of kit, acting as both a tool for downforce and an airbrake. Koenigsegg claims it is the world’s first top-mounted active rear wing.
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Lamborghini Veneno
© LamborghiniLooking like something you might have found on the Batmobile – that’s Batman’s car, not the BMW featured earlier – the rear wing on the Lamborghini Veneno features a pair of fixed struts and an adjustable horizontal fin.
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Porsche 991 GT3 RS
© PorscheCrazy rear wings make for great bedroom wall material, but it’s important to remember they also serve a purpose. On the Porsche 991 GT3 RS, for example, the rear wing produces up to 220kg of downforce.
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Honda NSX
© HondaThis might be one of the least outlandish efforts here, but it ranks on our list of favourites. The spoiler on the Honda NSX effortlessly blends into the bodywork and rear lights, putting us in mind of the Ferrari F40. It’s more discreet, that’s for sure, but no less beautiful.
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Porsche Panamera Turbo
© Porsche‘Wildest’, perhaps not, but ‘stylish’, most certainly. None other than the good people at GQ magazine described the slice of engineering genius found on the Porsche Panamera Turbo as ‘the world’s most stylish rear wing’. And they know more about style than we do. It trumps the rear wing on the older Panamera courtesy of a slick two-stage deployment, rising majestically at 80mph.
