A factory RS America whaletail.
A factory stock rear spoiler.

rear spoiler or “Whaletail”

Despite appearances, the factory rear spoiler or “whaletail” is actually unique to the model. So how can you tell a genuine factory whaletail from any other 911 rear spoiler?

7 RSAs in Fontana '03

The 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.

The real McCoy! A genuine factory original RS America whaletail
A genuine factory original whaletail.

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 .

So what are the differences between an whaletail and others?

The two ways to tell an rear spoiler from a 911SC or 3.2Liter Carrera® rear spoiler are as follows:

The 911SC or 3.2Liter Carrera whaletail - with a 'stub' for rear windshiled wiper and matte black painted grill.
The stock 911SC or 3.2Liter Carrera® rear spoiler

1) The 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 .

2) The fiberglass portion of the rear wing is all painted body color (the same color as the rest of the car). The grill on the upper surface of the 3.2Liter Carrera® rear wing were all painted matte black. This left a stripe of body color paint around the outside of the black grill. In other words, on the 911SC or 3.2L whaletails, the grills were always matte black but on the they were body color.

Unlike the 911SC or 3.2Liter Carrera whaletail the entire wing (exept for the rubber lip) is body colored including the louvers on the grill.
Unlike the 911SC or 3.2Liter Carrera® whaletail (below), the entire rear wing shown above is body colored
(except for the rubber lip). This includes the louvers on the grill.

The 911SC or 3.2Liter Carrera whaletail with black painted louvers on the grill.
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.

Recently, what has been referred to as an “” 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 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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