Whale Tail vs. Tea Tray Spoiler

[timmeranda]

New to this forum so forgive me if this has been covered before. What is the difference between these two spoilers. When where they intorduced, and on what production cars. Thanks

[9dreizig]

Whale tails were on SC's , Tea Trays are on 930's

[911nut]

The whale tail looks a lot like a whale tail. Looking from the side, there's not much depth to it. The tea tray spoiler is what you find on all intercooled Turbos. In profile it's deep so that the intercooler fits inside.

[Ylonewolf]

They started on the 930
(whale tail ) 1975-1977 they where low no intercooler
(Tea tray tail) 1978-1989 they where raised higher too fit the intercooler
Also on the 964 1990-1994
I think that's all there was

[Noah930]

This is my understanding:

Whale tail (which looks like the very early Carrera tail), offered on the early 930s:



Tea tray (aka sushi tray), offered on the later 930s. Note the vertical rubber lip "end plates" on either side (left/right) of the tail:



Carrera tail:



Actually, technically these aren't tails but rather spoilers, I think.

[LSTR8R]

And will a 930 tea tray fit on a 911 converted to 911SC?

[WPOZZZ]

Originally Posted by harrenst

And will a 930 tea tray fit on a 911 converted to 911SC?

Yes.

[Rawknees'Turbo]

One thing worth mentioning, for people interested in this sort of thing, is that the tea tray (denoted as the "3.3 Turbo" in the following, rear axle graph) outperforms the whale tail ("Turbo") in lift reduction.

[Alan L]

Yes, it is worth noting, these are not down force spoilers as seen on the GT3. The shape of the 911, as they got faster, acted like an aircraft wing. So it is inducing lift at the trailing edge - over the engine bay - where the airflow tends to separate from the body. The spoiler breaks this pattern up, so decreases the lift, rather than adding downforce.
Alan

[lee88]

Noah930's pictures are correct distinguishing the early 3.0L 930 whale tail, 3.3L 930 tea tray, and SC tails.

The early Carrera tail referred to above is also of the whale tail variety. These were fitted on 2.7 Carreras in 1975-76.


The 3.0 Carreras in 1976-77 had yet another version of the whale tail with different profile rubber lip as the 2.7 Carreras.

[infraredcalvin]

Originally Posted by lee88

Noah930's pictures are correct distinguishing the early 3.0L 930 whale tail, 3.3L 930 tea tray, and SC tails.

The early Carrera tail referred to above is also of the whale tail variety. These were fitted on 2.7 Carreras in 1975-76.

This first pic of the silver car is a tea tray lip fitted to a early Carrera/turbo deck lid and is not correct. Notice the angle of the silver lid transition on the sides to the black rubber lip does not match, yet on the early lip it does. The later lid does not have this transition. This deck should have the early whale tail rubber lip. The reason behind the redesign of the lid was to accommodate the 3.3 turbo intercooler which does not fit in the early whale tail lid with the downsloping grill.

[timc]

Originally Posted by Rawknees'Turbo

One thing worth mentioning, for people interested in this sort of thing, is that the tea tray (denoted as the "3.3 Turbo" in the following, rear axle graph) outperforms the whale tail ("Turbo") in lift reduction.

One other point to mention, is I think I read somewhere that you should not install either tail without also installing the lip spoiler ( or something similar) as the tail is designed to work with a front spoiler, and negative lift is increased in the front when using tail and no front spoiler....

[Pstl_Pete]

I recently put a Carrera Tail and ditched my tea tray. It wasn't a perfect fit but close enough for me. You can watch the install if you're interested here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUcajCjfMzU&t=8s

[Alan L]

My SC has the whale tail as per factory. It seems it must have been optional. I have spoken to a guy that had same yr SC without a tail. Said the car got very nervous at speeds around 80+mph. He got nervous too. Mine is totally planted at any speed. In fact it feels and handles much better at 80+ mph than lower speeds. Comes alive and well balanced.
Alan

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by Alan L

My SC has the whale tail as per factory. It seems it must have been optional. I have spoken to a guy that had same yr SC without a tail. Said the car got very nervous at speeds around 80+mph. He got nervous too. Mine is totally planted at any speed. In fact it feels and handles much better at 80+ mph than lower speeds. Comes alive and well balanced.
Alan

My US '82 SC targa had a tea tray (turbo 3.3 looking) tail as a factory option. It looked like the same tail on my '86 Turbo but I have no idea if they were dimensionally identical. Car handled just fine well in excess of 100mph (once I put decent tyres and had a proper alignment done).

[Cobalt]

Originally Posted by Alan L

My SC has the whale tail as per factory. It seems it must have been optional. I have spoken to a guy that had same yr SC without a tail. Said the car got very nervous at speeds around 80+mph. He got nervous too. Mine is totally planted at any speed. In fact it feels and handles much better at 80+ mph than lower speeds. Comes alive and well balanced.
Alan

In the US I never saw a fixed tail from the factory installed on SC's. I did see a number fitted with the extremely heavy rubber version of the whale tail. Is yours FG base and rubber tail? The literature I have from the time shows this tail as the factory option. The Glass base version later was seen on the 3.2's and then the 964 RSA.

Many dealerships installed the fixed glass tails but I don't believe they came that way from the factory. Would be interesting to see objective evidence.

[Alan L]

tail. Is yours FG base and rubber tail? The literature I have from the time shows this tail as the factory option. The Glass base version later was seen on the 3.2's and then the 964 RSA.

[/QUOTE]
Correct. My car (RoW) came as a highly spec'd version - every box ticked.
Alan

[Denim]

I have a 1985 Carrera 3.2 with a Tea tray spoiler.
I like the sleeker look of the original whale tail.

Can i replace the original bigger rubber lip, with the smaller Whale tail rubber?
Will it slide right on??

[Cobalt]

Originally Posted by Denim

I have a 1985 Carrera 3.2 with a Tea tray spoiler.
I like the sleeker look of the original whale tail.

Can i replace the original bigger rubber lip, with the smaller Whale tail rubber?
Will it slide right on??

AFAIK the carrera rubber should bolt up to the turbo tea tray. Both units are made from two parts both the tea tray and whale tail use the same top part and the bottoms is either made to work with or without the I/C of the turbo cars. The bases are actually made out of a plastic not FG and riveted together. I believe the holes in both are identical but if not you can easily drill out the ones needed to swap the rubber lip.

[spuggy]

Originally Posted by Denim

I have a 1985 Carrera 3.2 with a Tea tray spoiler.
I like the sleeker look of the original whale tail.

Can i replace the original bigger rubber lip, with the smaller Whale tail rubber?
Will it slide right on??

Yes, but you'll have to drill new holes because the two types of lip have studs in different place. See this thread and follow the links in it to the older threads: "tea tray" turbo tail change to carerra tail rubber

Also, alwaysflat6s has a succinct summary about how the tall boss that the rubber mounts to is different Carrera vs Turbo base; from when he did this on his CTR clone: RUF CTR Tail