Nice to see that Dodge hasn't forgotten what made classic muscle cars cool. You don't see much in the way of hood adornments anymore. Probably some federal regulation on it these days, but our Challenger does have these nice big "Hemi" badges on each side. A nice little detail that could have easily been nixed by the bean counters.
Then again, those hood scoops aren't exactly the real deal. They don't look bad, but there are no actual holes in them. Strangely enough, there are holes in the bottom of the hood just below the intakes. Not that it would really make a difference if there were openings. The engine sucks in its air through a snorkel in the left front corner, so the idea of any real ram air effect is pretty much toast.
Ed Hellwig, Senior Editor @ 2,947 miles
jaeger1 says:
05:02 PM, 04/ 2/09
Fake hood scoops are totally lame.
Mitlov says:
05:53 PM, 04/ 2/09
I'd generally agree, but in this case, they look great and break up what would otherwise be a hood as long and flat as a small airfield. So these are an exception to my general rule against fake hood scoops.
roadie73 says:
06:49 PM, 04/ 2/09
'Fake' scoops are only on the R/T, functional ones come on the SRT models. The hood is common between the two. Pretty sure that a quick trip to the dealership would secure some proper scoops ;)
cruiserhead1 says:
08:14 PM, 04/ 2/09
there is no ram air effect on that part of the hood anyway but if you decide to use forced induction, that's a good place for some intakes.
Mitlov says:
11:55 PM, 04/ 2/09
Here's a question. Since so many car people turn their noses up at a couple scoops that serve no purpose besides aesthetics, why are useless vents by the base of an A-pillar acceptable? Think of the vents on Aston Martins, BMW M-cars, Maseratis, the new CTS, even Buicks (their "ventiports").
To me, function or not, hood vents on the Challenger look less contrived than some of those A-pillar-root vents.
ace47 says:
12:42 AM, 04/ 3/09
Nice to see they have ricer features as standard fare.
billt9 says:
01:12 AM, 04/ 3/09
These aren't fake so to speak, since they do connect to the engine bay.
They can just bill it as _functional_ engine cooling, which they are. More cooling is never a bad thing.
Monocrom says:
01:32 AM, 04/ 3/09
"Nice to see they have ricer features as standard fare."
The classic Pontiac GTO had a fake hood scoop.
dougtheeng says:
06:59 AM, 04/ 3/09
I like the hood scoops on this car and on the G8. It gives the hood a little character.
jaeger1 says:
07:13 AM, 04/ 3/09
@billt9 - if the following from the article is true:
"They don't look bad, but there are no actual holes in them. Strangely enough, there are holes in the bottom of the hood just below the intakes."
Then how do they work as functional engine cooling ducts if there are no holes in the scoops themselves?
And just to be clear - I didn't suggest that they looked bad - it's just that outright fakery and a false suggestion of a performance enhancement don't particularly jive with me. And no - Dodge is not alone here - though why that matters escapes me.
firstwagon says:
08:22 AM, 04/ 3/09
I wonder if the aftermarket has way to make them real yet.
redliner says:
09:36 AM, 04/ 3/09
The ones on the SRT are function. It's just a matter of spending more $$$$.
mopar424 says:
12:07 PM, 04/ 3/09
As long as theyre not overdone, and actually ADD to the design of the hood. I agree with Mitlov on this.
randycat99 says:
07:26 PM, 04/ 4/09
Regarding the ram-air effect...it's not like those little hood vents could really feed a hemi at pressure, anyway. If you consider the bluntness of the entire front fascia, that's really setting up the best scenario for ram-air, anyway. Since that is where the intake duct feeds, I'd say they did it pretty much the best way it could be. The air gets caught in that giant front and piles up at a stagnation pressure to feed the radiator and air inlet.
randycat99 says:
07:30 PM, 04/ 4/09
Now if somebody could make a kit for some cool accent lights to light behind the grill pattern of the hood scoops... :p A bit bling-bling, but certainly more functional than using them for real air inlets.