By Jeff Glucker
Your average road car has no need for hood pins. Sure, they look cool on sports cars and race cars, but your daily driver Honda Civic? It doesn’t need them. In fact, 99% of the cars on the road don’t need hood pins. One new car, however, does need them. The 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 isn’t wearing them just because of a perceived cool factor. If you want your hood to stay put, those pins need to be there.
Speaking to MotorAuthority, Ford Performance’s Carl Widmann said the hood pins are necessary to “make sure the hood is stable at speed”. If someone were to remove the pins, the hood would lift at speed. Thats due to the massive vent found front and center on the hood.
Underneath that louvered section sits a rain tray. This is merely there to keep dirt and dust out of your engine bay. When it’s time to hit the track, however, Ford says it’s best to remove that tray. Not for cooling, mind you, but to reduce lift over the nose. That tray will supply unwanted lift, so you need to take it out. In general driving though? You’re fine.
So for those of you itching to take your 700+hp beast rocket to the race track, don’t forget to leave the tray in your pit space. And don’t have any funny notions of trying to shave down those hood pins or order the car without them. Ford won’t sell you a GT500 not equipped with hood pins.
This may be a high-water mark for the great Horsepower Wars. We’re at a point where a production car hasn’t affixed hood pins in an effort to be cool and appeal to aged, well-to-do muscle car lovers. Instead, the damn thing really needs them.
Ross Ballot
Because hoodpins look badass.
Even when they are stickers and do nothing, in my case. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d3974e1f165bd919bc75ff289049c66d76c287bfb1388a30ac334a6bc4cc705a.png
“We’re at a point where a production car hasn’t affixed hood pins in an effort to be cool and appeal to aged, well-to-do muscle car lovers. Instead, the damn thing really needs them.”
Muscle car lovers appreciate hood pins because their nostalgic cars needed them, too. They were effective for attaching hoods that shed latches and hinges to save weight and cost.
http://motorbase.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/pictures.ubh/2007/03/13/fs_1969_Dodge_Coronet_Super_Bee_Hardtop_440_Six_Pack_Fiberglass_Hood_Bright_Green_Poly__2005_CEMA__DSCN6021.jpg
I like rubber hood latches but I’ve found that even when installed with quite a bit of tension they still will stretch noticeably at speed if the airflow is working against them. Fortunately with a front-hinged hood this isn’t as alarming as it might be otherwise. I’ll just go ahead and claim the gap improves cooling.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/086bb0bea21767e31c987063d4fef8f7d13e30116d021438523aa7f6558d8176.jpg
I didn’t realize a 96 could attain enough speed to even induce lift. Color me educated. 🙂
Normally you’d be correct, but this 96 has been highly modified for racing by, um, the addition of rubber hood latches.
I’m impressed by the curb finders.
I credit them with the fact that, whether on or off track, our team has never yet had a driver hit a curb.
I credit them with the fact that, whether on or off track, our team has never yet had a driver hit a curb.
Speed is relative.
A driver who has devoted much study to the speed of continental drift undoubtedly thinks a snail’s pace is brisk.
Now that is authentic, earned patina. Please never wash old 43.
Those are some very trick looking hood pins with the flush latches instead of the traditional hitch pin set up
AeroCatches, they’re really neat, but harder to set up than good old pins.
Those Ford factory pins look pretty sleek, but I rank most hood pins right up there with fake fender vents– tacky. Of all street-driven cars I’ve seen in my life, maybe 1% legitimately needed hood pins. I had my hood fly up at about 80mph once, but during repair, I re-engineered the latch in a way that avoided them altogether, just because I think they look lame.
My sister was involved in an accident where a vehicle in the next lane had the hood fly open, blocking that driver’s vision. The driver attempted to steer off to the shoulder, but my sister’s car was in the way, and she got run off the road.
The car with the self-opening hood was a Mustang. It didn’t have hood pins, but apparently needed them.
It doesn’t need them. I’m pretty sure there is a well engineered solution for affixing panels that are exposed to vibrations and high speed airflows. Ford really needs a coop with SpaceX.