Why are Car Wings Twisted?

Today we look at why car wings are twisted, and what effects a twisted wing has vs a straight wing. We also look at where you would want to use each, whether it be high downforce or low drag configurations.

[@nick357d]

Aircraft wing twist is more often done for a different reason: preventing stall at the tips such that the outer ailerons still function such that you can recover from that stall.

[@bradcomis1066]

Recommendation for you: Project an image of an appropriate car onto your whiteboard then trace that image. This will make drawing a decent car much much much easier.

[@spencertressaadams8427]

KYLE.DRIVES I think its important to note many airplane wings (particularly fighter aircraft) have twist in them to provide lift at a range of angles of attack. When aircraft are in a extreme nose high turn a portion of the wing may be in a stall where the twisted portion can still be providing significant lift.

[@TTMR1986]

We also want control of the aircraft while stalled, by having a greater angle of attack at the root the stall will begin there and progress outward, this means the ailerons located nearer the tips will remain functional deeper into the stall

[@wayfastwitey13]

Spencer/Tressa Adams I don't..

[@vacomments]

Keep these videos coming please. They are super enjoyable, and aero information is never enough.

[@Niklausac]

Watched a few of your videos so far, all are absolutely amazing 👏. Interesting, engaging and simple

[@goldrivers598]

I've been watching all your videos and I love them thank you for this.

[@aesopm9200]

on planes twisting (flattening) the wingtips makes them stall last, and the ailerons are out there too, so i think for planes it's first order designed in for that. it does move the lift distribution in the right direction though that's true. hopefully i have that right. great videos, thanks.

[@McMeager]

Always quality content on this channel. Keep it up man.

[@asifulislam6563]

Haven't watched one of your videos in a long time. Was quite entertaining and educational. Keep it up, mate! -Ovi

[@aesopm9200]

Why are Car Wings Twisted? Because the aerodynamicists threw the car in the wind tunnel and the wing was stalled in the middle so they flattened that part out. :-)

[@LawrenceCrecy]

You literally just saved everyone 4 minutes and 38 seconds. MVP.

[@shaoyikai813]

aesop m so why not just position whole wing higher? High CG?

[@actualperson1971]

Many things- a high mount results in loss of structural integrity and slightly higher CG

[@TassieLorenzo]

@@shaoyikai813 Loss of beneficial interaction between car body and the wing if you put the wing higher.

[@_entrxpy]

@@shaoyikai813 he made a whole video about wing placement, balancing etc.

[@olivialambert4124]

Regarding aircraft, the tip twist originally had nothing to do with tip vortexes and today is usually the same. It is usually nothing more than a fortunate side effect. The aircraft reduce the twist at the wingtips because these are the areas you want to stall last. The control surfaces are at the outboard of the wings, and there is a much higher induced yaw thus making a (very dangerous) spin far more likely when the outboard wing stalls. There are many better techniques to reducing a wingtip vortex if this is the goal, but really it is a useful safety feature somewhat akin to vortex generators over the control surfaces. But because it was in common usage during WW2 it of course has some lineage, and the aircraft of the era weren't hugely concerned with tip vortexes.

[@VintageMeefs]

I love that you do these vids keep it up!!

[@Klackala]

badass knowledge man! very interesting to listen to, thanks a lot for all your vids!

[@Xempt_One]

Love the drawing, its like putting 10 inch wheels on a mclaren haha 10/10

[@maurixelmejor]

haha

[@KuraIthys]

As a student pilot it does feel kind of weird to talk about something where your 'lift' is intentionally pushing you into the ground... That would be catastrophic in flight. XD

[@LogieT2K]

wouldnt be ideal lol

[@Casey_Closed]

KuraIthys this doesn’t relate to this video but as a student pilot what do you suggest I look into before getting into aviation?

[@matk22]

@@Casey_Closed i think a pilots licence would be a good start

[@h.mushmann2351]

I got the gist, but had to watch twice. The rear window reduces the energy of the flow by the time it gets to the wing. So on a straight wing optimized for angle of attack at the tips, there is flow separation in the center portion. If the straight wing were optimized for the center portion, then equal lift at the tips will not be produced.

[@h.mushmann2351]

Watched a third time, its the downward flow off the rear window. I lost my line of thought at the aerospace transition.

[@KYLEENGINEERS]

+0125Bart Only in the same way that Engineering Explained is a rip off of a university lecture :)

[@DarkIzo]

KYLE.ENGINEERS ouch... brave for a youtuber but conpletely on point... and that justin bieber haircut any chance i get to read the original comment ?

[@georgemarye4772]

KYLE.ENGINEERS you look like a Great Value Ryan Gosling

[@JaxRhapsody]

I just sorta picked a video relevant to my question, since there's not a real way to contact; a ways back I was i an argument with a guy on the city-data forums automotive section about factory wings and spoilers. He claimed some proof of professional experience on it. He was saying that they all work in some way or another and not always for downforce. My example was my 81 Mustang and how many will say on two different foxbody forums that the 3piece(commonly found on 79-86 2.3 and v6 hatchs, or the one piece on 87-93(same thing pretty much)) spoiler doesn't do anything because of the hieght and angle of the hatch. He was also saying that even the spoilers on say late 90s to end run Pontiac Grand Am/Prix and Bonneville also do something along the lines of limiting the turbulent air directly behind the trunk by extending the top surface area- or something. I just started findng your vids in my feed, so I've watched most of them, but the spoiler/wing ones are what's been interesting me. My question is what factory wings and spoilers work and which ones don't, do they design them primarilly for looks or to work at legal road speeds? I've read that the wing that came on the fox4 Cobra(not the R model) actually slows the car down, and it's faster with either no spoiler at all, or with either a v6 spoiler or GT spoiler. Or the old IROC and 93 Cobra wing(prettt much the same piece) with has the same setup as one on an WRC STi with the vanes, or the Neon SXT and SRT4 wings. I've also seen something on wings that don't actually create downforce, but simply stabilizes the air or something. Could you attempt a video at explaining what different types of wings and spoilers do and if any factory ones do anything? I was thinking of a ducktail spoiler like you'd find on a stock car or new Corvette for my CVPI as a better optuon that the one for the Mercury Maurader, but if it'd end up just for looks, I'd rather not invest the money. I hope you see this, all the videos you've done on the subject has pretty much learned me on them, these are the questions I have left.

[@wayfastwitey13]

JaxRhapsody heyyy.. here's a thought.. Google. there are probably some type of drag coefficient stats on any car of note, somewhere. I doubt he'd want to research all cars ever made, to maybe hit 3 that may be interesting.

[@jakevanderrol]

Awesome video kyle I was wondering what the answer was to this very question after spending some time with a mates GT racerp

[@FlashManinSpace]

Nice drawing Picasso.

[@kongkangan]

@@AzathothsAlarmClock nice burning keyboard worrior

[@Lexoka]

Wouldn't turns mess everything up as the airflow angles would be completely different?

[@RadarLightwave]

Cool stuff man. Do you know anything about pickup trucks with tonneau cover mounted wings?¿ It's fairly common here in the U.S. and once I find a tonneau cover for my Chevy S 10 I plan to mount a wing on it, but I want to know what an aerodynamicist such as yourself thinks on the subject.

[@KYLEENGINEERS]

HazeWulfDemonic One of my PhD supervisors actually did a fair bit of aero analysis on pickup wings back in the day, they found that under most setups they interacted with the recirculation region behind the cab to generate lift! Add one if you think it looks good, but don't do it for performance. Besides, pickups are a bit too heavy for aeros to work well unless you want to kit it out like a time attack car.

[@RadarLightwave]

KYLE.DRIVES I'm wanting to do it for looks really, as the wing I have for it is an '80s Chevy Monte Carlo wing, which I doubt will have any performance what so ever. I wanted to ask for your take on it to see if there would be any benefits/negatives to it. Thank you for your reply. My truck is just a daily driver/work truck, but I would like to start auto crossing it eventually. Nothing to extreme. One day a small block 350 V8 is going to be under the hood though!

[@uranium98]

i'm stupid and not good at english so i cant understand well. is this video saying that a twisted wing creates more downforce than a flat wing?

[@shaneclk9854]

air coming off the sides of a fast back vehicle is by no means under this earth stable. you are going to have the formation of 2 massive vortices

[@fcmilsweeper9]

Do you think maybe you could do a few videos with a bit more engineering-y discussion? Like include some Navier-Stokes, potential flow theory, etc. to explain certain devices?

[@Freddy18w]

I have a NC Miata can I speak to you or someone about a similar issue, I have roll cage and am not going to use any kind of roof

[@KYLEENGINEERS]

Hi Freddy, shoot an email off to [e-mail] and we can talk about it

[@sergesvz]

Freddy Fabbri hi. just wanted to put my 5 cents in. I watched a documentary about bridges and they had round pipe that was exposed to high wind streams and the high winds going around the pipe would shake the pipe vilently and start shaking the bridge, the solution was to wrap a wire around the pipe to break up the air streams and produce vortesies and that would stop shaking the pipe. That's something you can reaserch and do to an open roll cage on the car.

[@thepartypotatopooper6354]

nice outro~

[@hyusama7469]

It just looks cool right?

[@fcmilsweeper9]

What's the piece at the end?

[@fcmilsweeper9]

Lol no I meant the music "piece" at the end haha

[@fcmilsweeper9]

But also it's Hungarian Rhapsody by Liszt I remembered ;P

[@petermoger8135]

Heyyy.. this isn't Engineering Explained..

[@LogieT2K]

yeah, its more intersting than engineering explained

[@jessechen4971]

Quit CFD analysis and just become a designer. Nice vid!

[@nachocockroach6419]

666

[@lumimobb]

You haven't explained the aero tech on wonky tires like you have demonstrated in your illustration 😇