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I was considering a new hood for my 2016 F-Type R that was not stock. However, I have not decided on this, and the choices seem limited.
First, I wanted to ask your opinion on the brand “DarwinPro”. This caught my eye as it was a different hood than anything I have seen, but I can’t decide if I like it or not, or if it would make the car look like a cheap tuner. So who better than you all to ask.
Also, does anyone know about this brand? Are they even worth it? See below for link. Thanks
If you do a search on this forum you will find that a previous member has fitted that hood on their car and there is a thread on it with photos. I doubt that you will get any information from him as I believe he was booted out of this forum many years ago but the thread is probably still there. He painted his supercharger cover to match his car so you could see it through that hood.
These are beautiful cars, but the engines with or without engine cover (event the carbon cover), are just not great looking. I'd save my money for other things.You want to see a nice engine...look at a Ferrari F430. After you see that, nothing on the F type can compare....just my 2c.
The hood might also be crucial in a crash in terms of safety...the aftermarket hood might not bend the right way or something and end up killing you. Seriously. TO be stiff enough to allow for that opening it might not bend properly in a crash....
And if you take the engine cover off, to help with cooling perhaps and save weight - at the expense of maybe some injector noise...on my car I cannot really hear it....so be it, but that is even uglier.
A nice E type engine is super pretty too...the F type...nope. I wish the F-type's engine was prettier -
Last edited by jcb-memphis; Aug 14, 2022 at 12:07 AM.
Agreed, there's really no point of such a hood on an F-Type. It seems extremely rare that people install them too - I can only come to think of that guy referred to earlier in this thread... which maybe is a bit of hint that most owners find it pretty pointless.
Safety is also a good point. Also pedestrian safety. Would the hood work as intended with the hood airbags? What if you hit someone and the person is killed or severely injured as a result of the modded hood while they arguably would have made it with the OEM hood? How strictly such situations are handled certainly differs in different countries but I wouldn't want to mess around with that.
I believe the UK model F Types have some kind of airbags or something under the hood that are designed to deploy from a low speed impact and pop the hood open. This is supposed to lessen injuries on pedestrians. I think someone noticed the difference in the under the hood photos and the US models don't have the modules and wiring going to the devices which are near the tops of the shock towers if I recall.
I cannot find any information on the web showing or information on hood airbags. Maybe someone from across the pond can shed light on this issue
cheers Frank
Thank you SCM that would be great. The purpose of these airbags is to prevent a person from impacting the windshield in a frontal accident or front end crash? The airbag raises the bonnet like an injection seat in a fighter jet? Cheers Frank
Here is the build thread from the previous forum member that did install that same hood, plus a lot more. You can decide if you want to spend that much time, money and work to do it.
as far as hood airbags, I have never seen those. I’m a 911 paramedic so I have seen a lot of autopeds but never a hood airbag, maybe that is just an f-type thing? Or I have never seen someone get hit by a nice car!
I think I am agreeing with most of you that the hood with engine view is just kinda pointless, and doesn’t add anything but controversial thoughts about it. At the end of the day it’s personal preference I guess, but I was on the fence if I even liked it or not.
Pedestrian collision countermeasures are a requirement in some markets.
It's not so much an airbag as it is pyrotechnics that blow the rear of the hood/bonnet upwards in the hopes of preventing (or lessening) head-to-windshield impact when a pedestrian goes up and over a low hood/bonnet. Most of these need to be designed to blow the hinges as the vast majority of hoods/bonnets open from the front and hinge by the windshield. It's a lot less work for vehicles with hoods/bonnets that hinge at the front.
Wow, every day is a school day. I had no idea that US market F-Types didn't have the the hood airbags (or whatever one should call them). Pretty surprising given the seemingly strict US car security regulations. Cars for the UK and other European countries have them. Jaguar has used this solution for at least 15ish years I think. Both my X250 XFs that I had before the F-Type had them and the X250 was introduced back in 2008.
I think I saw somewhere that the reason to raise the hood in a front impact with a pedestrian above all is to reduce the risk of the pedestrian hitting the engine block. It probably also reduces the risk of hitting the windshield a bit. A downside of the solution is that it deployed for some people that hit really bad potholes which got expensive (at least on the XF) because it basically destroys the hinges of the hood and the two explosive devices are pretty expensive to replace.
Yeah I can remember when the hood airbags were first introduced, I think it might have been by volvo in the v40 which we bought (t5 Cross Country, very nice car with a shocking turning circle). Anyway here is some stuff on it https://www.drive.com.au/news/volvo-...bag-in-action/
It's a great system. Just wait till it auto activates as you are driving!
Yes this has happened multiple times. The repair costs are astronomical!
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After market hood
