If you’ve spent any time at a race track, or just screwing around with cars in general you’ve either forgotten to install the hood pins in a car, forgotten to completely latch the hood, or watched a friend do the same. It certainly adds to the excitement when in the span of milliseconds your windshield is wrapped in sheet metal or the nice hood you’ve installed on the car heads for low Earth orbit at the top end of the track.
Here’s a collection of “whoopsie” videos, featuring hoods and drivers that have seen better days.
they seemed pretty mad.
I launched the hood (all steel, held on by 4 pins) on a V8 vega i built. Oops.
there is a reason for putting the hinges on the front.
This is why I always suggest investing in a $30 set of universal hood pins. In my experience, the average factory hood latch is reliable up to about 85mph. After that, it’s not *IF* it will fail, but when.
I’ve seen this happen dozens of times, even when the hood is firmly latched. It’s just track aerodynamics.
I knew a guy that put a China made hood on a Suburban. On a windy day the skin of the hood came leaving the frame still attached and latched.