13 Coolest Vintage Cars With Bold, Wide Wings
Does a large, wide rear wing add extra performance to a car? Not necessarily. But one thing it does do is make the said car extra cool. Just think about vehicles such as the Dodge Charger Daytona from NASCAR’s glory days. Or the striking, but massively impractical Lamborghini Countach, whose rear wing obscured the view out of the rear mirror.
But these are not the only wide-wing cars available. As our list here will show, there are plenty of performance cars from the past with vast, wide, and protruding rear wings that ooze cool in massive quantities.
You will find 13 of the best of those in this list. These are chosen by both their performance level as a car, as well as the size of the wing and how excellent we think it looks at the back of all of these monsters.
Plymouth Superbird
Of all the great American muscle cars, the gorgeous Plymouth Superbird is easily one of the most recognizable. Plymouth launched the Superbird in 1970 to dominate NASCAR and dominate the series, along with Chrysler sibling Dodge and their Charger Daytona.
Key to its advantage over the competition was the Superbird’s streamlined shape and massive rear wing, which hunkered it down to the track. These styling features led to the Superbird and Daytona becoming the “aero-cars” with crazy-high speeds. The series had to step in and ban aero specs on cars with engines bigger than 305 cubic inches, effectively outlawing the aero vehicles by the 1971 season.
Dodge Charger Daytona
The Dodge Charger Daytona is the Plymouth Superbird’s sister, launching before the Plymouth, and it brought the “aero-car” craze to NASCAR, albeit very briefly. Thanks to the aerodynamics of the Charger Daytona, NASCAR was seeing speeds over 200 mph, which began to frighten those in charge.
Under the hood of the Charger Daytona were a couple of engines. You could either have the 440 ci 7.2-liter Magnum V8 engine or the equally massive 426 ci 7.0-liter Hemi V8, both of which produced incredible levels of power. The car proved itself in NASCAR by setting numerous race and pole records, ensuring that the Charger Daytona would make a lasting impact despite its brief time in the series.
Lamborghini Countach
Following the success of the Lamborghini Miura, the Italian supercar manufacturer looked towards its success. By 1974, they would debut it and in came the fearsome Countach, a radical car designed by Marcello Gandini that really took a fight to arch-rival Ferrari.
The original shape of the Countachs is the best, but after F1 team boss Walter Wolf added a rear wing to his own Countach, Lamborghini began to offer it as an option for the car from the factory. The rear wing was made most famous on the LP5000 Quattrovalvole and 25th Anniversary Editions of the supercar. The rear wing was hopelessly impractical and added no extra downforce, but it looked good.
Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evolution II
Mercedes took the covers off the 190E 2.5-16 Evolution II (Evo 2) at the 1990 Geneva Motor Show, and the sedan’s design left nothing to the imagination. The menacing black look and the enormous rear wing revealed its track-ready credentials, which were backed up further by the powertrain under the hood.
The Evo 2 packed a massive 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine, producing 235-hp and 181 lb-ft of torque. The rear wing was so outlandish that BMW’s head of research and development, Wolfgang Reitzle, said, “The laws of aerodynamics must be different between Munich and Stuttgart; if that rear wing works, we’ll have to redesign our wind tunnel.” That is precisely what BMW did.
De Tomaso Pantera
While it might look like a Lamborghini at first glance, the Pantera was the product of another Italian manufacturer, De Tomaso. The Italian manufacturer enlisted the services of Marcello Gandini and Tom Tjaarda to do the design work, and what they came up with was a striking-looking supercar packed with one of three Ford V8 engine options, from 4.9 to 5.8 liters.
Not wanting to be outdone by Lamborghini, De Tomaso also added a rear-wing option to the Pantera to increase its appeal and sportiness. Like on the Countach, it was a massively impractical wing, but it made the now vintage Pantera look even more aggressive.
BMW 3.0 CSL
Touring Car racing was at its peak during the 1970s, and some truly spectacular vintage cars came with it. One of those was the BMW 3.0 CSL, introduced in 1972 to make the car eligible to race in the European Touring Car Championship. The L in the name stood for light, and the 3.0 CSL was made from thinner steel and with perspex side windows to make it as light as possible.
Characterizing the appearance of the CSL was its striking rear wing, which would earn the car the nickname “Batmobile.” The original 3.0 CSL made a lasting impact, so much so that BMW would recreate it with a special tribute 3.0 CSL as part of its 50th anniversary year, based on the current BMW M4.
Ferrari F40
The Ferrari F40 holds an extraordinary place in the hearts of not just Ferrari fans but the company itself. The iconic supercar was the last one personally approved by founder Enzo Ferrari before he passed away in 1988, and what a car the F40 turned out to be.
Power came from a 2.9-liter twin-turbocharged Tipo F120A V8 engine producing 471 hp. In US spec, however, the power was even higher at 477-hp. The F40 had an imposing and striking design, with a sleek front end, aggressive ducts on the side, and that imposing wing to keep the car planted at the rear. The F40 is now one of the most valuable Ferraris in the world, with fierce bidding following the car at any auction.
Ford Sierra RS Cosworth
On the face of it, a Ford does not need a rear wing. However, the Sierra RS Cosworth is no ordinary Ford. It was arguably the most excellent Blue Oval car of the 1980s. Because of its speed and popularity, the Cosworth, or Cossie, was a prime target for enthusiasts and car thieves.
Under the hood, it packed a turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four engine, producing 204-hp, which increased to 224-hp in the later Cosworth RS500 version. The Sierra RS Cosworth became an icon of the 1980s and early 1990s, with its vast rear wing becoming one of the car’s most defining features.
Ferrari F50
While it was never as popular as the Ferrari F40, the F50 is rarer than its predecessor, with just 349 units produced from 1995 to 1997. Ferrari decided to develop its 3.5-liter V12 engine from the 1990 Ferrari 641 F1 car and create the Tipo F130B 60-valve V12 for use under the hood of the F50.
That engine produced 512 hp and 347 lb-ft of torque, making the F50 more powerful than the F40, and arguably, it is the better car of the two. However, the F50 never quite had the same allure as the F40, thanks to its more divisive design despite its impressive rear wing.
Ferrari F50 GT
If the standard Ferrari F50 wasn’t enough for you, then Ferrari had an F50 to satisfy your racing needs. Enter the F50 GT, designed in collaboration with Dallara and Michelotto, to compete in the FIA’s GT1 racing class. The F50 GT followed in the footsteps of the F40 LM, and it had a fixed roof, a new front spoiler, and a new, massive rear wing that overshadowed the one on the road-going car.
Power came from the same 4.7-liter Tipo V12 engine, but Ferrari tuned it to produce a massive 739-hp. However, the F50 would never get to race, thanks to Porsche introducing its purpose-built 911 GT1 and a lack of funding for the G40 GT. Ferrari focused on F1 instead and, in the end, built just three examples of the F50 GT, with a further three tubs destroyed.
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI
In the 1990s, the World Rally Championship was serious news, and the rivalry between Japanese manufacturers Subaru and Mitsubishi was part of its appeal. The most famous of the latter was the Lancer Evo VI, produced from 1999 to 2001, and it was the car that Tommi Makinen would win all four of his WRC championships.
Power came from a 2.0-liter inline-four 4G63 turbocharged engine that, in the road car, produced 276-hp and 275 lb-ft of torque. A vital part of the car’s characteristics was its rear wing, and the Evo VI was visibly the more aggressive out of the two main Japanese rivals, the other being Subaru’s Impreza.
Dodge Viper ACR
The Dodge Viper has always been one of history’s most outlandish, aggressive, and fearsome sports cars. Nowhere was this on display more than with the 2008 Viper ACR. Under the hood was a massive 8.4-liter V10, with all its power going to the rear wheels to make the Viper an absolute monster.
The ACR package took things to another level. The American Club Racing package added extra power to the V10 engine, new wheels, upgraded suspension, and a massive carbon fiber rear wing. The ACR produced over 1,000 lbs of downforce, paired with the new adjustable front splitter.
1996 Porsche 911 GT2
No list of cars with a rear wing is complete without one exceptional version of the Porsche 911. The 911 GT2 is a special Strassenversion (street version) of the 993 Porsche GT built for racing in the late 1990s, and it is one of the most sought-after vintage products of the Porsche air-cooled era.
It is also one of the most potent Porsche 911s. The sports car weighs just 2,540 lbs, and under the hood is a 430-hp, 3.6-liter boxer engine with a six-speed manual transmission. That power figure would make some modern-day sports cars blush, and it only gets better thanks to the massive rear wing that adds extra aggression to the car’s design.
