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I have been pondering something for a while and thought I'd throw it out to the community to see if anyone out there actually had an answer one way or another. The question is this: Do the wings on 1/10 RC buggies actually do what they are supposed to do, namely generate a noticeable quantity of downforce? This question needs a bit of qualification as some wings – see those on buggies like the Boomerang, Hotshot, Hornet and the like – are clearly just there for aesthetic reasons, as there is no way that their shape and size could possible generate anything useful in the way of downforce. I was looking at the cars featured in the report on the Romsey '87 Worlds which @a.w.k. posted recently and it is possible that the big, gated bucket wings on some of the competitors might have had some effect, especially since they would have been fitted to cars much quicker, lighter and better balanced than your average Tamiya backyard basher. But then again, 1/10 buggies will generally have the drag coefficient of a grand piano and operate on rough surfaces that make aerodynamics very much a secondary requirement after mechanical grip, so will anything added to them make any difference? I have seen special bodies for US oval racers which feature slippery sports car-type shapes, kick-up rear wings and big transparent Lexan air dams on either side to harness the air flow over the car and almost force it to generate downforce. Given the smooth surfaces these cars race on and the high speeds they attain, this seems viable, if aesthetically ugly. But I have my suspicions that 1/10 buggy wings are purely there for show. Removing them would certainly change the car's handling, but this would happen if you removed any sizeable object mounted that far above the car's centre of gravity. On the Worlds cars in the article mentioned earlier, it could be that they served no function except acting as banners for sponsors, much like the airboxes on F1 cars, which are there purely because they are the most obvious surfaces on the car and therefore provide the most valuable advertising real estate. The wire wing mounts on most of those cars would also flex so much under load and vibration that they would surely render the attached wing almost useless. Has anyone ever tested a 1/10 buggy in a wind tunnel? Does anyone here know or have a good idea if the wings have any real effect?