BUT
I can't just sit and watch things like this and not get irked by them.
The Atom 4 wings. The factory have really dropped the ball on this. The design I just don’t understand or get. I've spent days/weeks trying to understand it and looking at it and it still doesn't make sense. They've been telling customers and potential customers that unlike the previous cars, the 4 was designed with aero in mind and so the wings have a significant impact and provide significant downforce. They may very well provide downforce but the sacrificial price to pay is ridiculously high.
What am I talking about? DRAG - the enemy of speed.
Both the front and rear wings have vertical lips on them that do absolutely nothing except provide drag at a ridiculous rate. Drag increases at a rate proportional to speed-squared. That means as you go faster, the drag increases exponentially, so the drag caused by these lips at higher speeds is going to be ridiculous.
A car aero wing is basically an upside down aeroplane wing. Do you ever see aeroplanes wings with these lips? What about any F1 cars?
A wing is supposed to create lift or downforce by creating a difference in pressures above and below the wing. This is achieved by splitting the air in half and creating a cross-sectional shape of an aerofoil that makes the air travel faster on one side of the wing than the other (they have to meet at the trailing edge so if on one side of the wing the air has to travel further, it will go faster, thus less pressure). This difference in airspeeds (and thus pressures) above and below the wing is what creates lift or downforce. This lip design not only causes drag but also interferes with the meeting of the air at the trailing edge that's been split. It's just messy all over.
If you don't understand what I mean, the next time you're in your road car going on to a motorway, stick your hand out of the window and hold it perpendicular to the road. As you accelerate you'll notice the wind pushing your hand back significantly more as you go faster. At about 60-80mph you'll be struggling to to keep it steady. This lip is basically your hand, except going all across the width of the car and at two points. Not only that, it;'s going to distrupt any downforce created by the wing from the "proper" way too.
If the wings are meant to be purely a cosmetic accessory then fine. But at 6k a pair and being marketed as providing real downforce then I'm sorry, it's just no from me. You'll get better grip around corners in spending 1-2k on a set of custom wider rear wheels and going up 20mm a tyre size (or slicks) and increasing your mechanical grip than you will with these. And as for your top speed and your acceleartion at 60mph+, that's gonna suffer no doubt.
