off to bed..

[dandylion]

Just before I go, I thought that I would lob this cat at those pigeons over there. Aside from the aesthetics, are there any real-world benefits to be had from the plethora of aerodynamic bits and bobs that litter the Lotus community?

Night night.

[DeanB]

Lap time on Cup cars - proved at Hethel. And more high speed stability generally if you're talking about wings.

Not everyone's cup of tea but i quite like a lot of them 

[Martin 111S]

Aerokit on the cups, provide lots of downforce  at fast speeds - cant remember what speed- generates 100kg of downforce   as opposed to the standard wing on the 220 which generates virtually nothing.

[timbo]

Make sure that any aero additions are balanced front and rear. Simply adding a rear wing to increase downforce will, very likely, decrease front grip as the car pivots around the rear axle line.

[KurtB]

Lots of aero addenda is there to reduce lift at speed, but the negative effect is increased fuel consumption due to drag. 

[@ndy]

I put a front splinter on my S1 that made the car feel more planted at speed and increased the front grip on higher speed corners, I noticed this after it fell off at Oulton, car was definitely a little more skittish.

At Le Mans this year I could get much higher speed going through turn 1 (Dunlop curve) in my cup that I could in my S2 Exige, Martin R commented how much more planted the car was compared to his S2.

@ndy