Formula One type open wheel cars cars don't have active aerodynamic
surfaces
anywhere, flaps, spoilers, whatever. They are fixed.

You mean formula one cars use fixed spoilers.

It has been well known for some time that mechanizing the fixed spoiler into
a spoiler flap produces several advantages.

snip of rattling and clanking

They are fixed in that the driver has no way to change a setting on the track
and they are not actively controlled either. If you watch an open wheeler race
you will see that one of the things the crews do when the cars come into the
pits is to adjust wing angles manually. So far as flaps go the rear wings
sometimes have a main wing and one or two smaller wings stacked on the trailing
edge of the main wing to smooth the airflow coming off.. The air behind the
cars is quite "dirty" and any smoothing translates into less drag. These wings
are often problemmatic because they are subject to flutter and failurel,
leaving debris on the track, so they aren't always used..

The devices are called wings because they are airfold that produce lift but in
a downward direction a counterforce to the lift from the main body of the car.
You may have seen at the 24 Hour race at LeMans France where a Mercedes went
airborne nearly 50 ft into the air, flipped a few times then landed flat on the
ground. They don't do anything relative to "spoiling lift" under the car and
there is nor rom to put spoilers there per se as they are just an inch or so
off the ground.

Some street cars like my Porsche use an air dam that is computer controlled and
raise to increase downforce on the rear about a certain speed, usually around
100 mph or so.

Apparently they need a electrical or mechanical egineeer and not an
aerodynamicist to design them.
Lots of opportunity. I'm surprized you haven't jumped on this opportuity, John,
and have become a consultant to the Ferrari or McLaren F1 teams. I suspect the
racing industry would benefit greatly from roll steering couples to their GPS
as well.