I'm looking for a light weight hood, but it's for a street car, so fit & finish, quality & several other things are very important. I'm wondering how many people here have CF hoods from various places, like GT Racing, etc...? Does anyone here have an aluminum hood? I think that would be one of the best ideas, b/c it would save at least 20lbs, but would still be solid for a street car. The CF hoods tend to be very thin & are often attached w/those rings that stick up all over the hood- I'm wanting something that will attach w/the factory hood latch & preferably using factory hood shocks, albneit very old & worn out, so as not to exert too much pressure on such a light hhod- I can do w/out hood shocks altogether if need be, but I want the hood to be attached like the factory & not have those little things stickingn up at each corner. Is any of this possible? What are some of your experiences w/CF hoods? Fiberglass? Does FG save much weight?

thanks for any info- I'm X-posting this to the main board since many people there do not read this one...

 

I have a CF hood. It was mounted with factory hinges and latch plate hardware, but without the hood shocks. I don't know of any fiber hood that will allow the use of shocks. For street use you'd also be disappointed in the finish. To my knowledge there isn't any mfg of aluminum hood skins.

 

I have a GT Racing Fiberglass hood on my 944. I love the finish and it is very light. GT Racing's webite states it weighs 14lbs and the original weighs 79lbs. I have an extra if you would be interested...PM Me!!

JESSE

 

Stock hood is more like 39 lbs not the 79lbs GT states

 

you have a pm!

 

Jesse, if Jesse doesn't want it, I'd also be interested....

 

Damn, like a bunch of circling vultures!!!

Jesse- does your's connect w/the stock latch? What about the hinges at the back of the hood (windsheild side)? I can definately do w/out hood shocks- would just save ~2lbs more, but would like the thing to be attached from underneath.

Also, if you read through some of GT Racing's older literature, you'll see they print dif weights for the same pieces. I've been told the stock hood's ~48lbs & I weighed one at my mechanic's once at 46lbs. I would also would believe there's a slight variance b/t hoods of dif years/types, etc.

 

I too have a GT Racing fiberglass hood on my track 951. It weights 24 lbs, not 14 as GT Racing claims in their catalog. By the way, the stock hood weights only 41 lbs. Quality is not bad but far from showroom finish.

 

It all depends on who paints it and what brand paint it is. IMO, mine looks exactly like the OEM showroom finish if not better.

JESSE

 

Everything mounts the same as stock except for the shocks. All latches and hinges are in the same location.

JESSE

 

Antonio- you said "fiberglass" hood. We were talking about Carbon fibre hoods- this would probably account for the 10lb dif, although fiberglass is still what I would consider to be a "light weight" hood, which is what I was asking about in the first place. I'm wondering, do you have any pics of your's? I'd love to see it if possible...? If you can't post them, please PM me & I'll send you an address to get them to...

thanks

 

Robby, I don't mean to hijack the topic. My point is that GR Racing tends to exaggerate the lightness of their parts and more importantly, overstate the weight of stock parts. As far as quality, since everything is handmade, it can vary. Sorry, I don’t have any close-ups of the hood. It looks great however at 50-50.

 

Antonio has it right, you will not get factory finish out of a fiber based hood. It will look great a few feet away, but get close and you'll see the difference, no matter who paints it!