Took a drive to Seibon today, came back with....:)

[RAAMaudio]

I called them up this morning since I am in SoCal and not far from them for a few days this week, talked to Ryan, he is very helpful and a real car performance enthusiast. I explained my build and purpose for the car, he made arrangements for me to buy it through a dealer who also was very cool, Luke at THMortsports. I am exceptionally happy with the price and very much so the quality as I always have been with Seibon, both companies highly recommended!

I will end up having it painted or at least wrapped in something closer to the stock silver color which is kind of sad as the finish is damn fine...less seen is more fun in how I build and drive cars.
I bought it to save weight as I have taken a great deal out of the rear of the car and all I could out of the front but it was still to front heavy. Also bought to let some air out from under the hood to aid in cooling and downforce but I will have to open up the vents much more to help it do that job even better which I planned to do before even seeing it.

One of the final mods on my two year quest to have a very quick street/track pocket rocket do all I want from it and it is getting there finally

Rick

 

[Plainrt]

I like this option instead of cutting up stock hood

 

[RAAMaudio]

I do not mind cutting up most anything, I just want to save as much weight as I can and get some air flow out of it

I will do some yarn testing later to see how well it works for venting heat out, once I open it up a bit more and if not enough have a plan to open it up a great deal more, if still not enough I will add more vents or cut the ones on it out and install some much larger ones until I get what I need from it.

I would sell my stock silver hood, with holes for hood pins, dirt cheap

 

[DRock]

Make sure to get it clear coated if you don't end up painting it. The gel coat they use isn't the best.

 

[RAAMaudio]

Thanks, first I ever heard of problems with their clear coat but never owned one of them for long, always used to change cars regularly.

I will figure out what to cover it with or get it painted before installing in a few weeks once the turbo swap is done.

 

[D1JL]

Rick,
I hope you said hi to Ryan for me.
I do need to call him to see how they are coming on the CF rear wing.
You should have got the hatch door while you were there.


Dave

 

[JasonHaven]

I kinda want one of these hoods... not because I'm hardcore, but because they look cool, and it'd offset my intercooler added weight. But I'm worried about how it'd handle rain/snow... how do the vents deal with that?

 

[D1JL]

That depends on what direction you are driving.


Dave

 

[JasonHaven]

More worried about my car sitting parked during a storm haha

 

[D1JL]

So far I have had no issues with rain or washing the car.
Yes water will get in when parked but there is nothing under the vents to hurt.
The last few days we have had some very hard/constant rain and no problems that I have seen.

As for snow, we don't get too much of that around here and I am NOT going looking for it.



Dave

 

[meFiSTo]

I've been kicking around the 2 Seibon vented options. I did find a good price on the TM version with free shipping. The RS version is also available from the same vendor with free shipping as well, but the base prices is more than ModBargains. Driving to the mfr. is not an option for me. The thing I like about the TM version is the proximity of the heat extracting vents to the radiator. The RS vent setup looks better though. If I get one of these, I'll get the thing painted. I'm holding off for now pending certain organizational restructuring decisions slated for the end of my company's FY16Q2 close.

 

[Wimp Lo]

I have seen reports of that type of hood venting helping to cool while the car is stationary or moving very slow but they exit in an aerodynamic high pressure area, they won't flow much at speed.

M Sport got it right with the WRC hood vents.

 

[meFiSTo]

I have seen reports of that type of hood venting helping to cool while the car is stationary or moving very slow but they exit in an aerodynamic high pressure area, they won't flow much at speed.

M Sport got it right with the WRC hood vents.

Interesting. There actually are some hood vents like those which were mentioned by a member here about a year ago.

They really would be intended for retrofit onto a stock hood. Not a cheap proposition, but an interesting thought.

 

[Wimp Lo]

Those aren't quite like the WRC vents and they are expensive on top of that.

I found a Polish place that makes vents that actually look like the real deal. Their big product seems to be making rally car replicas that take Mitsubishi Evo running gear. Their Fiesta seems to start with a Fiesta tub, custom cage/tube frame, modified strut towers and WRC replica body.

Once I get a quote I will let people know if I'm going to buy a pair.

 

[RAAMaudio]

Great posts here guys, so much fun talking about all this

I know the hood I bought might not be optimal so will to tweak it a little or quite a bit and could end up having WRC vents as well as the ones on it now opened up.

CF hatch would be cool but I need to take weight off the front far more than the rear so the car is more stable under high speed braking, most of the weight I took off was the rear so doing what I can for the front right now.

I am retired, far less income than I used to be able to blow on cars, have a budget.....RPF1 wheels, CF hood, very costly alarm, all in the last three days and still need tires and a WMI kit and full time RVing is not cheap....sometimes I wish I had not blow the fortune on cars I have done but then again, been some great fun

 

[meFiSTo]

I know the hood I bought might not be optimal so will to tweak it a little or quite a bit and could end up having WRC vents as well as the ones on it now opened up.

How easy is it to cut CF? I certainly could not do that, but I mean for a shop. Feels like sheet steel would be easier. If it's not that difficult to cut the CF cleanly, it might work to get some kind of WRC-style vents and mate them to the stock replacement CF hood (or get Seibon to think about making one like that). Anyway, increasingly looking like such a purchase (with vents or hood a modification) is just not in my cost optimization range. I think getting the mishimoto cooling bits installed and the mountune lip bolted up will pretty much be it for me (setting aside fluids, pads, other wear items, track day costs, etc.). It's got to stop at some point.

 

[RAAMaudio]

Stop modding? I have tried for decades, no luck so far)

CF is pretty easy to cut, just use a little cutoff wheel with a dremel then a little dremel sander drum to clean it up for smaller work, tape it really well and make sure the bottom has no burs and use a jig saw for bigger areas, etc.....

Hardly any parts are actually CF they are fiberglass, sometimes foam or other interior materials, single CF layer over it for the look and a bit more strength.

 

[Wimp Lo]

Wear a respirator and eye protection when cutting CF, it is a bit nastier than fiberglass.

Its easier to bond a fiberglass or CF vent lip to a fiberglass or CF hood.

 

[RAAMaudio]

Wear a respirator and eye protection when cutting CF, it is a bit nastier than fiberglass.

Its easier to bond a fiberglass or CF vent lip to a fiberglass or CF hood.

Absolutely on both, protect yourself when cutting and ensure plenty of fresh air when using resin as well and much easier to go FG to FG or CF than those materials to a metal hood.

----------------

On thing to consider, the raised lip on the leading edge of the vents creates low pressure behind it thus helping extract air at speed. Once I open up the vent holes and do some yarn testing I will see if I need to add a bit more to it using some ABS sheet in a vertical orientation.

I would use ABS which is easy to heat up and mold to shape so it would look cleaner than this picture shows of some nice Miata louvers. The louvers are made for three generations of the car and I have considered getting some of them and still could end up doing so.

 

[RAAMaudio]

I went to the website and found more vents besides the 3 different Miata ones, going to go take a closer look now

http://www.singularmotorsports.com/

The two outside vents for the Subaru might work nicely on the FiST.