Happy New Hood to me...........

Yes, not only did I pick up the new hood in Detroit, thanks Ma Chrysler!

But that new hood is now in place on the Mega Maniac Drag Pak #24...

Hood pins now secure the hood to the car. No more trying to remember where the Dzus fastener tool was last put. And no more scratching the hood as the fastener tool slips out of the slot, and scars the hood. And with as many fasteners as were used,  you would think that they would hold. But it was the wrong thing used the wrong way. The problem, and the reason our hood went sky flying solo and separate from the car, was that the front dzus fasteners were mounted in plastic that flexes. So as the car hit about 135 mph, the vibrations and air up pressure caused some fasteners to release. Then with some sections of the hood loose and more fasteners releasing, when enough had let go, the rest ripped through the carbon fiber, or in a couple of cases pulled the pop riveted brackets right out of the metal.

But even on its best day, the dzus fasteners were a pain in the backside. Start locking them down, and invariably, there will one or two that just didn't get lined up right, and so you had to undo a few, readjust the hood, and start locking more of them. It was never easy, and neither Chris nor I like them very much.

Now, there are eight pins holding the hood down. And removal of the hood is sooooo easy when necessary. But when the hood needs to be on the car, it stays on the car. And nothing will cause those pins to release, until the pins are pulled. One more thing we need to do, is to wire the pins to the chrome so you don't end up with a pocket full of pins that can get lost. I will post some pictures here, as soon as I find my camera...

One unfortunate side effect to the effort to build the new brackets and attach the hood, is that I caught another cold. I spent most of the month of December, and part of January fighting a cold, only to finally get feeling better. Part of that feeling better came as a result of leaving cold Ohio for a bit. But now I am back, and so is my cold... Don't you just love the weather in the Midwest?

Next race? We are getting ready to go to the ZMax Raceway in Charlotte North Carolina April 13- 17

See you again after Charlotte.......