Quote:
Originally Posted by BlueOval Ralph
No Hood Scoops! Just look at SS Mustangs bubble hood, DP Dodges hood scoop, COOP at SEMA. Most Pro Stocks have problems with valve covers clearing hood. Beside you still have to put a intake manifold and throttle bodies on engine. Doesn't mater carbs or efi intake runner will be close to same length. = No Flat hoods
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Great point! Look at any of the current PS cars and check the area where the hood meets the windshield. As Ralph says, the hood is raised probably close to a foot and makes all the cars look chunky and strange. Check the difference in thickness (top to bottom dimension) between the cowl area and the very front of the car. Lots of stretching going on.
And no, it doesn't have anything to do with carburetors.
The first cars I saw that carried this bogus design were the Neons, and that's to be expected from stuffing a 500 inch engine into a shell that was engineered to carry a low profile four banger. There must have been some unexpected aero gains to be made, as all the other brands followed suit as new cars were built.
The horse got let out of the barn when it was no longer required to use stock body panels on the quarters and roof. Of course, the chassis builders brought the current spec "funny car" body on themselves as they expertly tweaked around the templates and rules.
I have no doubt that was a serious headache for tech, but I thought that was their job in the first place. To me, finding all the tweaks was one of the cool parts of PS racing. WJ's Cutlasses were always worth a long, long, look.
Crew-based aero got so serious back then that at least one top level team experimented with stacking decals on the quarter panel, leaving a ragged edge on each decal which was slightly offset from the one below it. They were attempting to create a vortex generator, which would keep the air from wrapping around the back of the car and creating turbulence.