Carbon Fiber hood question.
02-11-2004 | 09:43 AM
#11
Registered User
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 2,268
Likes: 0
From: Rockville
I'm not sure if you're saying that carbon hoods in general are form over function or that you prefer form over function and thats why you like the OEM style ones.
To be more accurate, you can't get much more Function over Form than carbon fiber. The carbon construction is meant to make the hood lighter (although this may only be incremental in our case due to the stock hood's aluminum construction). This comes at the expense of form (i.e. your body panels dont match unless you paint the panels and then thats an extra step that most race cars don't take because it would be a waste of money simply to make the car more "pretty").
As for the reason behind the vents, it is two (sometimes 3)fold.....
1) They DO vent hot air from the engine bay more efficiently.
2) They also help increase the downforce on the front of the car. This is due to the fact that under the hood is a high pressure area (air is heated by the engine and tries to rise, pushing up on the hood and therefore on the front of the car).
3) In *SOME* extreme setups (on the S2000, CWest's is the only race car I know of that is set up this way), the vent is positioned in such a way that air from the front air damn flows up through the radiator (modified to fit in a half-V mount configuration) and right out the vent to increase cooling capacity. On turbocharged cars this air usually goes through a V-mounted intercooler instead (RX-7's do this alot, as do some Silvias).
So if you ask me, the OEM style ones are the ones with little to no purpose seeing as how they offer little weight savings and don't offer any of the above benefits. So since its a mod with little to no effectiveness and designed soley to *look* cool, wouldnt *THEY* be the ricey ones?
Just my mouthful of my $0.02.
-Jeff
To be more accurate, you can't get much more Function over Form than carbon fiber. The carbon construction is meant to make the hood lighter (although this may only be incremental in our case due to the stock hood's aluminum construction). This comes at the expense of form (i.e. your body panels dont match unless you paint the panels and then thats an extra step that most race cars don't take because it would be a waste of money simply to make the car more "pretty").
As for the reason behind the vents, it is two (sometimes 3)fold.....
1) They DO vent hot air from the engine bay more efficiently.
2) They also help increase the downforce on the front of the car. This is due to the fact that under the hood is a high pressure area (air is heated by the engine and tries to rise, pushing up on the hood and therefore on the front of the car).
3) In *SOME* extreme setups (on the S2000, CWest's is the only race car I know of that is set up this way), the vent is positioned in such a way that air from the front air damn flows up through the radiator (modified to fit in a half-V mount configuration) and right out the vent to increase cooling capacity. On turbocharged cars this air usually goes through a V-mounted intercooler instead (RX-7's do this alot, as do some Silvias).
So if you ask me, the OEM style ones are the ones with little to no purpose seeing as how they offer little weight savings and don't offer any of the above benefits. So since its a mod with little to no effectiveness and designed soley to *look* cool, wouldnt *THEY* be the ricey ones?
Just my mouthful of my $0.02.
-Jeff
02-11-2004 | 11:47 AM
#13
Former Moderator
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 24,162
Likes: 3
From: Burlington, VT
[QUOTE]Originally posted by 1AP12NV
So if you ask me, the OEM style ones are the ones with little to no purpose seeing as how they offer little weight savings and don't offer any of the above benefits.
So if you ask me, the OEM style ones are the ones with little to no purpose seeing as how they offer little weight savings and don't offer any of the above benefits.
