The Gurney Flap Makes the Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 Faster

When you take a look at the Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 you’re going to see a car that’s built to cut the air and handle the track with ease.

Driving on a track is something that needs to have everything in balance. For many years, experts have studied the effects of airflow over and through a vehicle in order to learn how to get through the air faster and make the most use of it.

Some vehicles have added air ports to suck in more air to cool the engine and brakes while providing additional downforce and less resistance when driving. Other vehicles are made to cut through the air quickly and use the air to push the car down on the track for added control.

What’s That Small Flap on the Back?

Speed is a serious balance of aerodynamics and downforce and this particular Ford Mustang has the perfect balance of both to make sure it can rip around a track and offer a lot of fun when you drive. As you take a look from the front to the rear of this car, you might notice something on the spoiler that looks a bit out of place.

That out of place item appears to be a small flap that doesn’t flow smoothly up the spoiler. Instead, this angled piece appears to be something that could be holding the car back that, if removed, would allow the car to be much faster on the track. Before you decide to make a change to this spoiler, think about the fact that the Ford Engineers know what they’re doing and have added the Gurney Flap to this car for a purpose. That purpose is to give you more speed and offer the quickness you need on a road course.

Where Did the Gurney Flap Come From for the Ford Mustang Shelby?

A man by the name of Dan Gurney was the one to create this flap that is used on many spoilers of today. During a 1971 test session, he was testing one of the Indy 500 cars he had built with Bobby Unser at the wheel. The car seemed to be slower than it should be and Unser wanted a solution found. Gurney had seen other teams working with spoilers to change the airflow and he deiced to see what would happen if he put a small spoiler on the rear edge of a large wing.

The results are now racing history as the Gurney Flap was born and the flap has been in use ever since. This is a flap that now makes its way to planes, helicopters, and many cars over the years. This small flap allows a car to have more downforce in the rear to give more control, which is important in an RWD sports car on the track. This small item helps your Mustang GT350 go faster and turn more quickly to make it easier for you to show your taillights to the rest of the pack at the track.