Forward opening hoods

[VENUM INJECTION]

I have always been curious why Dodge stopped putting the forward opening hoods on the Vipers. I am a new Viper owner and was really dissapointed when I started researching Vipers to learn of the hood design being discontinued. I loved that look and was wondering if the decision was based on asthetics or actual performance.

 

[Paul Hawker]

The original hood/fenders design was terribly expensive and difficult to design. Lots of scrap to get just a few good hoods.



The new design is a bunch less expensive and easier to produce in high quality.

 

[mini viper]

Replacement value of the old hoods I believe is around $18000!!

 

[ViperJohn]

Was done to cut costs and make insurance companies happier.

 

[pteam]

Ya who wants to spend $18,000 on a hood when you can buy an 08 hood now for $1,300...

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

All of the above. But not mentioned was the effort required to align during assembly. According to a CAAP bigshot that came to one of our meetings he was adamant about the next gen having a traditional hood.

I think a compromise could have been made. I believe the GenIII hood could have included the tops of the fenders. The top of the side gape is a natural cutoff line for the hood and would not have been the monster hood of the GenII/I.

And if the clamshell configuration was such a pain in the butt then I would have wanted to see a clip-on lift off hood like the CC rather than the typical **-hum kind currently used. I wonder if there is a federal regulation requiring hinged hoods? Anybody know?

 

[VENUM INJECTION]

WOW!! I had no idea the old hoods were that expensive, and that the 08 hood is so inexpensive. That is a huge difference. I still wish it was clamshell though.

 

[RobZilla]

Forward opening hoods are way sweeter. Just gotta be extra careful but who isn't anyway?

 

[mini viper]

Forward opening hoods are way sweeter. Just gotta be extra careful but who isn't anyway?

No joke, any little fender bender that touches the hood almost makes the car an instant total loss

 

[Snakemobile]

It might have been a little more appropriate for a sports car if the hood had been hinged at the front... IMHO.

 

[GTSnake]

There is no federal crash standard for the direction of the hood opening. It's true that the GenI/II hoods were the single most expensive part on the car. They couldn't get the production line started in the beginning of Viper production because they were scrapping something like 2 hoods for every good one made. I'm sure Jon B would have the exact ratio.

 

[RTTTTed]

And here in Canada those hoods are worth $28,000 minimum. Add another few thousand for shipping, thousancs for taxes, etc.

Ted

 

[pteam]

And here in Canada those hoods are worth $28,000 minimum. Add another few thousand for shipping, thousancs for taxes, etc.

Ted

ouch... maybe we should start trading gen 1 and 2 hoods instead of stocks?

 

[jpa99acr]

nothing like the forward opening hood for the car show bling