Why No grille on the new gt500?

[Lemers]

I saw a '13 still with dealer plates at a hotel i was staying at. Looked like it had been on a long road trip. Bug splatter everywhere. The radiator was a mess. The only thing I remember was telling myself. "it's hard enough to clean bug juice off the paint, how's he gonna get it out of the radiator?".

Remember the air flow is designed to go into the grill not away from it, so pretty much everything will get in there. Damage is a concern.

 

[Chris!]

All the bugs come right out with my high pressure nozzle setting on the hose

 

[Lemers]

That's good. At least you're not picking them out one by one.

 

[03cobra#694]

See sig pic, over 10 years old, no issues.

 

[chuckstang]

Well there was this poor guy...

Careful you may have killed the mothman

 

[03Cobra05GT]

Careful you may have killed the mothman

I lol'd

 

[GT Premi]

... "it's hard enough to clean bug juice off the paint, how's he gonna get it out of the radiator?".

... Damage is a concern.

A brush and/or pressure washer.

There's little chance of the radiator being damaged, especially the lower portion. A rock would have to go through the HE and the A/C evaporator. At the top, it would have to punch all the way through the A/C evaporator. By the time it did that, it would have probably lost all of its momentum and ability to damage the the radiator in any meaningful way. And if you look at that pic posted above, there's a very tiny window of space where the engine radiator is directly exposed to hazards. Odds are against any damage ever occurring to the radiator.

And if it'll make you feel more at ease, I know for a fact the A/C evaporator can take a nasty hit and survive. I was on a road trip one time and there was an entire 18-wheeler retread in the road. There was no way to avoid hitting it. Thankfully, there was a Lexus RX350 in front of me that slammed into it and laid it down flat; however, one end of it bounced back up as it slapped the ground. My front splitter hooked it (and came away intact as well) and balled it up enough for it to slap the belly pan. I never even noticed any damage until I was installing my Killer Chiller and saw a big dent in the bottom of the evaporator; no holes or leaks, just the dent. Thank God for the belly pan, though! Without it, I might very well have had two busted radiators and an ugly repair bill; and I was nowhere close to home.

 

[Yellow Horse]

I bought a 2013 grill upper and lower. Unless the 2013 is different, I am pretty sure what you see is the air conditioner condenser, not the radiator.

I like mine. It looks a lot better than the honeycomb especially when it gets the white crap built up in it.