Final results of Tiger Racing hood

[haskett]

Many of you will recall that Chicane23 provided to me a Tiger Racing hood late last year. It's a fiberglass skin on a fiberglass frame so that it will fit on the stock hinges and latch, although pins are still recommended. Given what I do with my car, there was no question that I was putting on pins.

The main purpose of the hood is to support my open road racing habit by venting the trapped hot air under the hood. So it not only helps me theoretically keep engine temps under control (along with a bunch of other mods for the same objective), but it also helps keep the front-end down when roaring down straightaways at 160+ mph.

After several events, the glue had started to fail that keeps the skin and the frame together, so the shop glassed the whole hood together. Not only did that make it much stronger, but it now looks fantastic when the hood is open. I also had the shop smooth out a lot of the waviness in the skin so that when it was sprayed glossy it would look closer to a stock finish.

Don't expect stock quality from the hood, but with a lot of elbow grease at the shop, it can be made to look fairly decent. A really sharp eye will still find flaws, like the gap around the edges that you find on all aftermarket hoods and also the gap at the front since the hood is made for all Mustangs, not just Cobras.

Also, I used Quik-Latches on the car but would not recommend them for Mustangs. They look nice, but really require a nearly perfect 90 degree fit between the hood and the support beam, which is impossible on a Mustang. If I were to do it all over again, I'd go with a different safety solution.

Stellar Auto Care in Spring, TX did the body work. Fantastic work at a great value, I highly recommend them to anyone in the Houston area.

Anyway, here are the results.

 

[Snake Plissken]

I like it. Defiantly serves a purpose.

I guess it would be hard to say, but do you think the only reason the glue started to fail was because of the road racing events? Possibly it may not happen with normal street use. I don't road race, weekend street use and a few passes down the strip during the summer for me.

I'm running a 2000 Cobra R vented hood. It "works" to a certain extent, but I'd like to find better. Anything to get the dreaded Terminator heat out!

 

[haskett]

I like it. Defiantly serves a purpose.

I guess it would be hard to say, but do you think the only reason the glue started to fail was because of the road racing events? Possibly it may not happen with normal street use. I don't road race, weekend street use and a few passes down the strip during the summer for me.

I'm running a 2000 Cobra R vented hood. It "works" to a certain extent, but I'd like to find better. Anything to get the dreaded Terminator heat out!

It's likely that the road racing contributed to the glue failure. After boxing the radiator, the stock hood introduced a lot of front end lift at speeds over 160. So if there is enough force to lift the front of the car, then that puts a lot of stress on the joint between the hood skin and the hood frame.

 

[CobraBob]

Looks darned good from what I see. I can also see how it definitely would serve it's purposes of exhausting under-hood heat. Do you have a "before" pic?

 

[haskett]

Looks darned good from what I see. I can also see how it definitely would serve it's purposes of exhausting under-hood heat. Do you have a "before" pic?

Here you go! I have a ton of pics, so if you don't see an angle or detail you want, just let me know.

 

[haskett]

Some more before pics, with the latches installed.

 

[stangfreak]

This hood I like

 

[SVT_Troy]

Looks awesome. Can you list a quick run down of the other mods you have done for track day preps. I'm wanting to do the same and have got in on Steve's group buy for the Race Bronco's replica hoods

 

[50 Deep]

THat looks good

Hood pins look a little funky, although I know they serve a purpose. Maybe plastidip them black so they don't stick out so much?

 

[SinisterMustang]

Hey haskett,

That looks amazing! We're huge fans of the Tiger hood here at Sinister Mustang and have first hand experience with the carbon fiber setup on s197 Mustangs.

Its fitment is great, but like you said, it does require a bit of elbow grease to have a factory paint finish, which is why we wrapped ours.

Thanks for sharing!

- Sinister Mustang

 

[haskett]

Looks awesome. Can you list a quick run down of the other mods you have done for track day preps. I'm wanting to do the same and have got in on Steve's group buy for the Race Bronco's replica hoods

Heat is the #1 enemy. The mods that made the biggest difference for managing engine heat were:

1. Boxing the radiator
2. Installing a massive oil cooler in front of the drivers' wheel
3. Eliminating the stock oil filter adapter to improve oil flow and eliminate heating via coolant

You will want a coolant temp gauge other than the stock one, which is useless, and probably an oil temp gauge, also. I went with Aeroforce.

If you look at my sig, you can see other things that I did, also. Don't skimp on fire extinguisher, roll bar, seats, and harnesses. Of course, brake rotors, pads, and some high temp fluid are fundamental, also. I have a diff cooler on my list of things to do, but haven't gotten there yet. A set of wheels with track tires are a must to save your expensive street tires from being ruined at the track.