Spoilers...

For the longest time, I have been fascinated with the sport of automotive racing. It started out with my first short-lived toy that my dad got me, which was a tiny little battery-operated car, no bigger than an oversized packing box. I think it was short-lived because either my mom asked my dad to return the expensive toy, or it was a loaner my dad was able to get his hands on, considering that we were not exactly wealthy by any standards back in the day.

Then when I moved to Indonesia, speed was something I fell in love with after getting a hold of my first bicycle. As Indonesia is a country where one of the WRC circuits are held, and its proximity to Australia, another WRC circuit, news of WRC racing was all the more frequent everywhere. The Jakarta Post will always have pictures of races on its Monday prints, not only of the WRC races, but Formula One and Sports car racing such as the Le Mans. Add to that the constant televised coverage of these races during the morning of weekends; I was hooked at an early age. Instead of growing up on cartoons on weekends, I was simply glued to automotive racing.

Unfortunately, racing is a sport that involves lots of money and investment, not to mention risk. As my family wasn’t exactly wealthy, my mom never had to play her risk card arguing that racing is a dangerous sport. So here I am, stuck in a career that keeps my hands smoother than the average girl’s. Of course, I have accepted my fate, and am content with not going on to become a racer, or a president, or a basketball player, or you get what I mean... But that has not stopped me from spending my own personal free time and resources to take up lessons on racing and understanding racing dynamics as an adult.

Although I may not be a professional racer, I consider myself knowledgeable in this sport. I’m not talking about trivia, but actual skills behind automotive racing. And this past Saturday, a certain highlight on the Milwaukee Mile race (IndyCar series) caught my attention, and suddenly brought back a very particular memory in my life. It was a memory that I have never had to recall, as it wasn’t pleasant. It was a heated argument between a girl I really cared about (then) and I had.

One night, while leaving a bar, we saw this car stereotypically associated with prepubescent Asian or Mexican drivers parked on the side of the street. Meaning: it had fancy and colorful decals all over the sheet metal, stickers of manufacturers all over the windows, gauges installed all over the interior (checking the pressure on the turbocharger, engine temperature, and size of ego inversely proportional to confidence in bed or with women), and last but not least, wings that looked like they were bought from the Boeing parts department. Seeing such gigantic wing, we both cracked jokes about such sad affair. Then I simply commented, “Isn’t this idiot stupid? He’s got a huge spoiler in the back, but he’s got a front-wheel drive car!”

That’s when the jovial mood was promptly replaced with an argument. She stopped laughing, and turned to me, “John, you know what the purpose of a spoiler is for, right?” I replied, “Of course I do!” She quickly shot back, “Then you should know that spoilers make cars go faster, right?” By now, I had to correct her. “Actually, spoilers will marginally increase the drag co efficiency of a car, thus slowing it down in high speeds. But the benefit of a spoiler greatly outweighs the drag on the car.”

Not wanting to be wrong, she argued, “That’s not right. Spoilers make cars go faster.” I simply gave her a dry response, “Then explain how a spoiler will make a car go faster.” “I don’t know, but I know that it just does.” So I explained that in high speeds, a spoiler will create down force on its point. So a rear spoiler will create extreme down force on the rear wheels, thus increasing traction on those wheels. The benefit of increased control of a car from greater traction far outweighs the benefit of a few seconds’ gain in speed.

And thus our fight that evening when she didn’t believe me and I tried to convince her otherwise. What blew my mind was the fact that I gave her a real, scientific reason as old and common-knowledge in the world of automotive racing that she simply wouldn’t agree with me. Of course, after I dropped her off and bided good night, I just thought, “Just forget about it, she knows little about cars. Besides, she doesn’t even own a car.” Both of us, or at least I, have since forgotten about that fight.

That is, of course, until this past Saturday when I was out celebrating my other friend’s graduation at a bar. A video clip ran by ESPN dug up a memory long-forgotten, and transplanted the experience over a year ago as if it just occurred a few days ago. Anyway, here is a video highlight of the Milwaukee Mile race, and if you watch carefully at the 1:02 time marker on Helio Castroneves’ number three Team Penske car (video timeline is in reverse, starting with 2:18), you will see clearly the purpose of spoilers and their effects (or there lack of) on cars that are powered through their rear wheels:


Basically, no spoiler equates to no traction, and no traction in high speeds results in little control of your car. Now you too know the purpose of spoilers! =) So next time you see some kid putz around in his souped up sports car, and it happens to be a front wheel drive, feel free to laugh at him!

By the way, spoilers just breaking off or folding away is an extremely rare occurrence, unless it was sabotaged. So don’t worry about it if you have a spoiler on your rear wheel driven car that can go fast. This is so rare that this is honestly the first footage of an actual race where you can see the effects of a spoiler.