The T1 R8 Drag Spoiler installs to both early and later facelifted model 2nd generation R8’s with the OEM fixed position carbon wing, and is recommended to be handled by a qualified technician and/or body shop. Expected install time is 5-6 hours. At this time, this kit is not compatible with the trim levels unequipped with the OEM fixed rear wing. Please read and understand all instruction steps, prior to beginning the job. All required parts are supplied and the installation can be handled with basic tools, a drill bit set and a nutsert installation tool. The nutsert holes will be drilled out to 23/64, so make sure this size bit is on hand. A basic nutsert tool like you see below will suffice if you don't already have one and can be found for under $50:
One set of support brackets will be provided with each kit, and will be dictated by the pre or post facelift body style.
The drag spoiler will be mounting to the OEM rear trim/vent panel and deleting the OEM wing. The finished product will sit on the car as seen below:
The support rods will secure to the bottom portion of the spoiler, and then to the provided brackets which sandwich the rear grills on the rear bumper. The rear bumper can stay on for installation, but you will need to access the backside of the grills to secure hardware. Jack the car up from both sides, place on jackstands, remove the rear wheels, and then remove both rear inner fender liners:
Before we can move on to mounting the spoiler, the OEM wing needs to be removed. Before we can access the wing, the panel in front of the wing panel has to come off, which you can see in the diagram below:
Below is a picture of the bottom of that panel, which makes it a bit easier to see what is securing it. The two outer mounting provision bolts need to be removed, then the center, and then the panel needs to be popped up to release the three green circled clips from the chassis. The green electrical connector you can see below will be underneath a bit of heat protective sheathing, which can be pulled back, and then the connector disconnected.
Two side mounting provisions:
Center mounting provision:
Connector that needs to be disconnected:
Now we have access to the wing panel itself. The wing and grill can stay attached to this panel while we remove it from the chassis, and you can see it in the diagram below:
Again, a bottom view is helpful in seeing what needs to happen:
Close up up both mounting provisions:
The two front mounting brackets will have the hardware removed entirely:
Circled in green on the underside picture you will see two more brackets. The nuts you see here need to be loosened, but it’s recommended to not fully remove them, and the panel will come up off the chassis with them loose. They aren’t fun to get restarted if fully removed, which is why it’s recommended to only loosen them until the panel can come off.
You will also need to remove the bolts in the diagram below, which is connecting the wing’s aluminum bases to the chassis:
With the wing panel assembly off you can remove the wing from the panel by unscrewing the four wing bolts. With the OEM wing removed and trim panel loose we can move on to mounting the spoiler to the trim panel before it’s returned to the chassis. We will utilize the OEM mounting holes for the wing first, then move on to drilling out additional mounting holes. As seen in the picture below, the green holes are already present on the trim panel and spoiler, but the panel itself needs to have two M6 nutserts installed.
The two upper holes WILL NOT use nutserts, do not drill these out in the panel for them. Only the two bottom holes of these four will use nutserts. The two upper holes (green in picture below) will use the provided square low profile retaining nuts, while the lower holes (red in picture below) will use the nutserts:
For the two bottom holes, drill the exiting holes out to 23/64 and install the nutserts with the proper tool. You can then mount the spoiler using the supplied M6 x 16mm bolts with plastic washers:
Verify the spoiler aligns properly with the trim panel before proceeding. It should mirror the shape of the panel along the front edge and sides, and the grill relief should be centered on the grill. Now is the time to modify the four holes being utilized currently if some alignment needs to be corrected. The oversize bolts and washers will allow for some hole enlargement. Once you are happy with the fitment, you can reattach and secure the four bolts and proceed with drilling the other holes. The spoiler itself is already drilled for two more side mounting holes and three along the front edge. Mark and drill pilot holes in the panel through these, paying careful attention to centering the holes.
With your pilot holes drilled, remove the spoiler from the panel to finish drilling out the holes to accept nutserts where necessary, and just an M6 bolt in the others. The three holes along the top of the spoiler (red in picture below) will be attached with nutserts, while the two outer most holes (green in picture below) will attach to the billet aluminum brackets provided, using the two longer M6 x 20mm bolts.
You can now install the three M6 bolts and plastic washers to the top holes, which will be the final step before putting the panel and spoiler assembly back on the chassis. Before returning the spoiler and trim panel assembly to the body we suggest protecting the paint around the corner of the quarter panels, as there can be some contact between this area and the spoiler until installation is complete:
There are two billet brackets provided that will install in the OEM wing base location on the chassis, and then mate with the two outer most M6 bolts/holes on the spoiler assembly. You can reinstall the OEM bolts on these before placing the panel back on, but do not fully tighten as you will want to allow the bracket to float and mate with the bolt freely.
The spoiler assembly can now be reinstalled on the chassis by reversing the removal steps. Do not tighten the hardware initially and allow yourself some wiggle room to align the two M6 bolts with the billet brackets. If you need to open up the holes for proper alignment you can do so now. As stated before, the provided hardware has large enough heads to allow some modification here. Once you have everything started and the spoiler assembly squared up on the chassis you can tighten everything, and then replace the trim panel removed to access the wing panel originally.
Mounting the support rods will be the next step, and this can be done in a few different ways. We have taken measurements to show the approximate bolt hole locations and sorted the proper area to install the brackets in the grille. Below is where the brackets need to be installed on the pre-facelift cars:
And here are the locations on the facelifted cars:
The brackets are quite straight forward, but maybe not obvious at first glance. They are different for each side of the car, so there are two left and two right assemblies. For the pre-facelift models, one side is flat, while the other is contoured to come through the grill from the inside of the bumper to the outside, where it mates:
For the facelift models, the brackets are a bit different:
You will notice the bottom pictured half of the bracket has a large block in the center, while the other half has two skinnier portions. The half with the larger center block will be on the outside of the bumper, while the other will mate from inside the bumper.
With all four brackets installed you can go ahead and install the rods on them and let them hang. The rod ends with female mounting provisions will be the spoiler side, while the male end hiems will go in the grille brackets.
There is a jam nut which will be tightened after the rods are installed on both ends, make sure it is loose to allow full rotation of the rods. There are also jam nuts at the end of each heim; once loosened you can fully rotate and extend the rod as needed. You will notice the female receiver on the spoiler side mounting fixture has a jam nut as well, if needed this can be loosened to adjust length as well, just make sure you leave room for the bolt to be fully installed without bottoming out internally against the heim.
You will be drilling through the spoiler to mount the four support rods, and this is where we chose to make these holes. The side short supports are 7” from the leading edge on either side:
The center supports are 16.5” in from the back edge on either side.
With these four holes drilled you should be able to thread/unthread the rods as needed, mate to the spoiler, and tighten everything up. This should all be quite easy and nothing should be binding. There is no need to force the spoiler up, but you want the spoiler to be fully supported without being to push down on it lightly.
All you should have left is replacing the fender liners, wheels, and then letting the car down. Make sure you torque the wheels before going out and showing everyone how cool your car looks!