Paris 2016: the things with BIG wings

See, no matter how long car designers spend endlessly attempting to find inspiration for the next big thing, there’s one guaranteed trick of the trade that’s a handy winner: a ruddy massive rear wing.

It’s a cheap trick, we know. But one that wins TG over time after time.

That's why this year’s Paris Motor Show was a good one. It provided many things with big wings. Many good things with big, big wings. Some of the biggest we’ve seen in a while, actually.

We’ve rounded the best up in the gallery above. There were a few rules, though. To be eligible to enter, the uppermost tip of the wing had to be at roughly chest-height of a six-foot human, have enough surface area to host a small banquet and generate enough downforce to stick the car to the tarmac like a sautéed Tangfastic.

So click through and prepare to throw your wallet at your computer screen.

Even though it has a funky interior, it’s hard to deny there’s a lot going on with the Toyota C-HR's design to bamboozle. The best way to stop people looking at it? A distraction. A big wing-y distraction.

That’s what Gazoo Racing did for the car it entered into this year’s N24 endurance race.

The spoiler sprouts so far up and out of the rear boot that it could double as a chin-up bar. Or, if you have some rope and bit of wood, hang quite an effective swing underneath for the kids to play on. See, what a great family car the C-HR is now.

Last year, Porsche facelifted the road-going ‘991’ generation 911. For Paris, the German firm brought its racing sibling in line so it wouldn't look out of place in the 2017 family portrait.

But, in case you haven’t noticed, there’s a stonking great wing on the back. Which is like turning up to the family portrait with a nose ring and Mohican.

It spans nearly two metres wide and sits above the new naturally aspirated 4.0-litre flat-six engine of the GT3 RS. But power here is rated at 478bhp, or 15bhp less than the RS. Still, it’s 220kg lighter. And has a bigger wing. Which settles any family argument in a jiffy.

Rallying’s top-flight WRC championship is getting a new rulebook for 2017. In short, the new regulations mean more powerful, bigger, and wider cars. But, better than all of that, more wing.

As a whole, teams now have greater aero freedom and the massive rear wings hanging out back can now be shaped with more creative licence than before. So now they're becoming works of art in their own right.

Something perfectly demonstrated on the Hyundai i20 WRC car. The Koreans have gone for a swoopy, sharply-raked double-deck carbon jobby on the new i20 that looks, well, ace. Especially when doubled up with that meaty carbon diffuser below. We like.

It wasn’t just the Koreans that rocked up and peacock'd their new big rally wings around the show. The French also played a blinder with this, the Citroen C3 WRC.

The rear wing is quite voluptuous, doubling up under itself in a very stylised way. It’s also huge.

Luckily power is a spritely 380bhp, provided by the 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol engine that meets 2017’s WRC regulations, which allow larger turbo restrictors, freeing up a whopping 80bhp.

There are many different styles of wings in Wing World. But the one on the back of the Audi RS3 LMS is one of our favourites. It’s the kind where the supports come up and over the wing to allow the aileron to hang below. Kind of like a Praying Mantis holding a scaffold board.

The souped up and stripped out RS3 is designed for the TCR touring car series, yet appears to have been taking styling tips from the latest wave of WRC rally cars. However, it does differentiate itself with that centrally-mounted pea-shooter exhaust.

Not satisfied with just one big wing on its stand, Hyundai turned up with another – the awesome RN30 concept.

Where the i20 WRC car had a heavy gradient to its rear aero, the RN30 is flatter but still extends all the way back to the outer extremities of the rear bumper.

The engine, meanwhile, is a 2.0-litre turbocharged unit, strengthened with forged pistons, producing a hilarious 374bhp and 333lb ft. That’s the same output as its i20-based 2017 WRC challenger. Which one would you have?

For the last ten months, Team Gazoo – Toyota’s racing arm –  has been hard at work thrashing out two development Yaris WRC rally cars. And judging by the wing-on-wing-on-wing spoiler it’s grafted onto the back of its test car, nine of those months must have been in rear wing development.

As you can see, there are two main elements (upper and lower) with two smaller mini wings off to the sides. The engineers will probably bang on about this having significant aerodynamic advantages over its competitor's thanks to months studying wind tunnel data, but we all know more is better. So this will obviously win next year’s championship, right? Well, possibly. Maybe.