Racing Wing (optional component)

<< Weld Wing Mount to Transaxle Bracket                          >>

Major System Category: Brakes & Suspension
Task: Mount Racing WIng
Parts: Wing Mounts
             Racing Wing
Prerequisite Tasks:
Weld Wing Mount to Transaxle Bracket
Additional Costs:
Vraptor Speedworks Universal Wing Mount $489
APR GTC-300 Carbon Fiber Wing $1350
Time Requirement: 4 hours
Date Started: January 6, 2015

Date Completed:  January 8, 2015
I told my long time sparring buddy that I was getting ready to cut into the back end of the car. He expressed concern. I explained that after this much time on the car, very little frightens me anymore. Besides fiber glass can be fixed.

The wing arrives in a long box and wrapped in bubble wrap.

To give a sense of scale, the rolling bench is 48 inches long. The wing is 67 inches.

 All parts are purchased from Vraptor Speedworks (Shane does a great job). The Vraptor wing is the same one offered through the Factory Five website. The main difference is the attachment points are custom to the Vraptor mounting system. This is a very solid piece of gear. The back end is greatly reinforced by this addition.

The initial cut. I originally figured it would be 7 1/2 inches long. I needed 8 inches to make everything work.

I added rear body shell louvers to the build. I masked off the area, and came up with a rough measurement of 2 7/8 inches from the edge of rear louver opening. The mount comes in three parts that are bolted tot he welded transaxle bracket, then bolted side ways through slots for the portion that pokes through the rear body shell, and finally the third piece that rests above the body shell. All that to say I was inside of a 1/4 inch and well within tolerances for the mount adjustments.

The cut needs to be this wide to work. I already have a solution for cleaning up the edges.

I used a angle grinder to make the initial cuts. Once those were wide enough, I used a rigid sanding wheel on a die grinder to shape, smooth and widen the cut. I strongly recommend wearing a breathing mask and face shield. There is a great deal of dust released when cutting into the back end like this.

This is the middle part of the bracket poking through the hole. This is secured to the bottom bracket by three bolts.

The cut ended up being 8 inches long. I ended up about 1/2 inch off the rear of the car, and I had to trim some material around the exhaust vent openings. Keep the socket wrench and hammer handy, because I had to loosen the bottom of the bracket and tap it back and forth to line things up.

This shows the middle and top part of the mount bolted together and the length of the cut.

The second cut went much faster (probably, because I had some idea of what I was doing).This was on the passenger side, and this is where I need to move it over a tad. I don't think the difference will be noticeable.

Driver's side mount installed. Once I got to this point, I knew I'd get to the end of this task tonight.

Once I had the middle and bottom brackets bolted together, it gets very easy. The one thing I ran into was the bolt closest to the rear of the car is snug. Not uncomfortably snug, but I had to use hand tools and not my power tools to tighten it up.

Both mounts in place. I have a card board covering for the rear louver.

The rest is very straight forward. I was really excited to see the wing on the mounts on the car. Granted it is just resting on the mounts, but that's not a big deal.

Yes!