Stupid Question
 

What is this thing?
I was sitting at a traffic light watching cars go by and noticed that most cars have this thing. What is it? What does it do? Why do most cars have it? Is it aerodynamic? It must have a purpose. What is it?

It's a spoiler. Reduces drag by deflecting airflow away from the wheel well.

It's the ground for the DI ECU that everyone forgets to bolt down.

I thought you were kidding. But after taking a good look at it, I think you're right. Can't think of any other reason for it's existence. Does it have a name? And if Toyobaru is so concerned about drag, then why doesn't the car come with a rear spoiler?

Looks like I'm not the only one bewildered by this. I just googled "what is flap in front of rear wheel ?" Alot of people want to know.

I'm glad I'm not the only one.

Search for wheel deflector. Verus actually makes a kit for the front.
https://www.verus-engineering.com/sh...gt86-350#attr=

Mine did. It reduces drag coefficient by a bit iirc.

Toyota calls the one on our cars a stone guard.

New cars need all these fancy aero tricks to get much worse gas milage than cars did 30 years ago.

Progress!

just remember kids. never let reality get in the way of a good story!

A Stone Guard? Really?
How in the hell does this rubber thing guard against stones?

I don't think Toyota knows what it's for.

Ain't Google great.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/aerod...-vesa-tiainen/

Great explanation. It all makes sense now.

But what do stones have to do with it?

This. This is what stones have to do with it. When the wheel flings stones it pushes them down instead of blasting the corner of the quarter off.

I'm just thinking out loud, if you leave the dirt on the sidewalls, seed some moss, a bit of TLC, you'll have a tyre colour that matches the rest of your motor.

What have you been doing to collect 'rally' style dirt?