Advice on a hood

[Jersey_M3]

Been to about 10 or 12 track events so far. Loving it more and more. What I don’t love... is being black flagged at every other event for my hood looking like it’s going to fly open. And it’s only on the side that the oem hood latch is not on. Question is do most guys end up going with hood pins? I haven’t seen to many of them but on dedicated track cars. Has anyone else experienced this issue and fixed it. My guess is the hood needs to be bent, or the rubber gaskets around the headlight are not doing what they are supposed to anymore.

[Feffman]

I have hood pins on the current hood and when I swap in a new carbon-fiber/composite hood, I'll run Aerocatch (https://www.aerocatch.com/aerocatch/) latches.

Feff

[Obioban]

Something is wrong with your hood/latches-- a healthy stock hood does not do that.

[Tbonem3]

Agreed. I would also lower the bump stops a touch. Even if only on track days.

[Jersey_M3]

Thank you all. Upon closer look the left side latch was not engaging. Got it to click on after extending it. Will need to fool around with it more but at least I know they are both clicking in now

[bigjae46]

Lesson learned the hard way...aerocatch. Don't use the slider pins.

[Feffman]

Lesson learned the hard way...aerocatch. Don't use the slider pins.

I have those now (always double check them after an OOOPS once necessitating a new windshield) and will be swapping to Aerotech with new hood.

[pMak26]

I run the stock latches AND hood pins now on both of my caged track cars.

[bigjae46]

I run the stock latches AND hood pins now on both of my caged track cars.

The aerocatch latches are pretty strong. Been up to 140mph.

Most of all, they are the most idiot proof latches out there. I’ve tested them…approved!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Obioban]

I’ve had my stock hood, without pins, up to a cluster indicated 185mph without issue.

….which shouldn’t surprise anyone, given that the car was designed for autobahn use.

[M3logik]

If you're doing a daily driver project, you should just focus on fixing the stock hood latching mechanism. If this is a track focused project, you should just go with the hood pins. The purpose of those is to have quick access in case of emergency. I would do one or the other, not both.

fwiw I like the locking versions of the aero catch hood pin systems.