I'll get right to my question: Is there any advantage to a larger wing for my 810. The stock is sturdy (and I have a brand new one 'just in case'), but curious if there is any tangible difference in getting it a larger wing (such as the Proline you see in the attached photo).

In this case, is bigger better (assuming the added weight)? Will it drive in a straight line faster, manuever in the air better? In other words, what are the "best practices" for wing setups?

I'm assuming the answer is "you just have to test different ones and feel it", but would like to know what is a good base setup. If I get no advantage, I'll run the stock. If there is an advantage, I'll get the appropriate wing.

NOTE: This is outside durability. I have quite a few different manufacter's wings and can easily tell durabillity, Instead I want to understand performance.

Thanks!

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might not help but here goes. i was testing wings on road. here is the way i did it. i would drive in a straight line then do a sharp turn. then try it faster and faster until the wing had no effect. so i would change the angle. but when proper racing you will need to have a good balance between corning and the straights. but that all depends on the track. you could fit a larger wing then do speed runs in a short area to see how much speed is lost if any with different wings

Thanks, turok007. That does help. Still trying to understand the science behind it.

C'mon, Foxy! You once told me you were particular about your wing setups. Help me learn something here, ;-)

you could look at a F1 site for info as a rc car is just like a real car.

Basically true. But offroad has it's own unique handling situations. With so many chassis adjustments available, the wing is really low down on the list of things to be concerned with.

From what I understand wings purpose is to create a downward force. The downward force is mostly needed during high speed for the wheels to grip the road. When car is going fast, its almost like floating/bouncing/skipping on top of the surface, the wing creates a downward push on the car to keep it on the road.

So for this reason, its works during fast straight runs, I dont think it helps much during cornering or turning. Just like an airplane wing, the bigger the surface area, the more downward force it can create, but too much area (too big) can also become a drag.
The angle position of the wing is also important, too much angle and it also becomes a drag and will slow you down.

Since we are talking scale models, the effects might not even be tangible, specially off road. I can see it being very imporant on drag racing though.

Okay, good stuff guys. I appreciate it. This tells me what I need to know.

while testing my RC18 the wing was a massive help when corning.

You mean rc18'''''''''s?