A factory stock RS America rear spoiler. |
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RS America rear spoiler or “Whaletail” |
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Despite appearances, the factory RS America rear spoiler or “whaletail” is actually unique to the model. So how can you tell a genuine factory RS America whaletail from any other 911 rear spoiler? |
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The RS America rear spoiler is similar (but not identical) to the 911SC or 3.2Liter Carrera® rear spoiler - that is, it consists of a fiberglass body-colored piece that bolts on to the engine cover with a grill on its upper surface and a rubber lip around the trailing edge. The rubber lip curves upwards along its aft (trailing) edge - but does not curve upwards at its left and right sides. |
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A genuine factory original RS America whaletail. |
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The whaletail with three sides of the rubber lip that curve upwards (with the left and right sides being substantially thicker than the trailing edge) were stock on the 3.3Liter 930 Turbo but not the RS America. |
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So what are the differences between an RS America whaletail and others? |
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The two ways to tell an RS America rear spoiler from a 911SC or 3.2Liter Carrera® rear spoiler are as follows: |
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The stock 911SC or 3.2Liter Carrera® rear spoiler
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1) The RS America never came with the option of a rear windshield wiper, but the 911SC or the 3.2Liter Carrera® did. For this reason, the 911SC or the 3.2Liter Carrera® rear wing had a provision for a rear wiper in the form of a “stub” molded into the fiberglass on the edge nearest to the rear window but offset roughly 10” to the left side of the car (see image above). If a particular 3.2Liter car was fitted with a rear spoiler but did not have the optional rear windshield wiper, this “stub” had a plastic plug in it to block the hole that the wiper arm would have come through. Look for the “stub” - if the whaletail has one - it may be factory original, but it isn't from an RS America.
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Unlike the 911SC or 3.2Liter Carrera® whaletail (below), the entire RSA rear wing shown above is body colored (except for the rubber lip). This includes the louvers on the grill. |
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The 911SC or 3.2Liter Carrera® whaletail (above), has the louvers and the area around the grill painted black - irrespective of the body color of the car. |
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Recently, what has been referred to as an “RS America” rear spoiler has been advertised by certain fiberglass body kit shops in several motoring magazines, that is an all fiberglass wing of similar approximate shape as the RS America wing - but with no rubber lip. I don't know anything about the quality of their product, but it would appear that their knowledge of their products application is “definitely lacking”. |
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