Spoilers make anything car-related better, right? Not usually. When it comes to your tires, though, they might actually help quite a bit.
Adding spoilers to cars -- à la the Fast & Furious franchise -- is an age-old pastime of gear heads and car enthusiasts alike. Sure, adding a spoiler to your 12-year-old Civic might in actuality make it slower. But, visually, it feels like it's faster with a spoiler ... and isn't that most important?
Unlike the street-racing-obsessed youths, Yokohama, in collaboration with a team from Japan's Tohoku University, is testing some new radial tires complete with spoilers on their sidewalls. Besides making the tires look downright Jurassic, the fins have been proven to improve air flow underneath the car, Yokohama says.
Demonstrated in the virtual world with simulations created by Japan's K Supercomputer, the fins hit pinnacle performance at the top and bottom of the spin, as the tire rotates. At the top of the spin, the fins reduce drag. At the bottom of the rotation, the fins aid in curbing lift.
The result is that the tires not only allow the vehicle to be more stable and safer at speed, but also more efficient. While safety is certainly important, efficiency is really the name of the game for the global car market.
Though it might still be several years before your new car will come with tire spoilers, the tire concepts will be on display at the Tokyo Motor Show later this month. So you can at least get an idea for what they might look like strapped to your less-than-sporty Civic.
