- Is a hood scoop ever a bad idea?
- Does it cause problems?
- Where is the best location on the hood?
Clarification: Which year, make, and model?
it's pointless for 95% of cars
... And it only impresses people who don't know anything about cars. 😯
It depends. Usually they are just decorative and have no function, but some old muscle cars used a hood scoop to pull colder, denser air into the intake for more power. In some cases, like the Rover P6 3500, it was an attempt to keep an engine prone to overheating a bit cooler.
They're to make your car look faster on pretty much every street car, but are otherwise useless. True hood scoops are supposed to push more air into the engine because the car moving really fast through the atmosphere. Nobody drives fast enough to take advantage of the compression effects. I believe a model of the late 90s Trans-Am had a functioning hood scoop on the nose, but it was not the most effective, because there isn't a massive compression effect at highway speeds.
It's called a ram air intake but on most cars the scoop is just for looks.
Unless, I'm mistaken, hood scoops have gone the way of vinyl tops, chrome rims, jacked up rear suspensions, matte-black hoods, pop up headlights, crushed velour seats and many other boomer-era "trends".
Now we have coffee-can exhausts, under-car lights, 20 inch rims and other trends that people will be wondering about 30 years from now.
Fads/trends/marketing drive a lot of car-buying decisions.
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I really hope the touchscreen fad passes quickly.
On my Z28 and my GTO, the hood scoops are there to allow more air into the engine compartment to dissipate heat. My Z28 is almost exclusively a drag car and my GTO is a fully built street car. Important to note that in both cases the scoops are fully functional...they are not sealed off. This is the way to truly get a benefit from a scoop. Sealed scoops are just for looks.
Some cars have scoops for ram air purposes like the Trans Am WS6. My personal opinion is if you have a serious muscle car that generates heat, you'll take any help you can get to move the air through the engine compartment and keep things cool. Fake scoops....I'm not a real fan but as long as they are done tastefully (think the hood scoops on the 99-04 Mustangs) they can look good.
They are very good at bringing more dirt and crud into your engine compartment.
maybe it'll catch some of the flying debris from big trucks that would ordinarily chip your windshield on the highway 😆
Or how about driving behind a hay truck?
The idea behind a Ram Air hood or intake is that it's supposed to create a very mild "supercharging" effect on your engine.
Once you are going fast enough, the idea is the air is being forced or "rammed" into your engine's intake.
If you check out the Dodge site, you'll notice the new Challengers ordered with the ram air hood option are rated at the same horsepower and torque as the versions without it. The scoops are functional but add zero additional HP.
As mentioned above, they really are not applicable for the vast majority of vehicles. They are for looks and bragging rights, however they accomplish little to nothing in the way of additional power production.
If you really want more power without tearing into the engine, a supercharger or turbocharger kit (if available for someone's vehicle) would be the way to go.
On the WRX (and other Subarus) it directs air to the top mounted intercooler.
