If you look at the front of the new 911 GT2, you’ll notice those massive scoops. And you might think the engine is in the front and the scoops are for cooling and providing air. However, this is the 911, so the engine is always in the back.
In fact, the front scoops are for cooling the front brakes and providing aerodynamics to the whole car. And they are one of the biggest ever to be fitted on a production 911 model.
To dominate the NHRA tracks in the late ‘60s, Dodge produced a limited run of Darts with 426 Hemi engines and unknown power outputs. The cars were not street legal since they produced them only for racing with the body in primer and big racing slicks in the back. Of course, the massive Hemi needed air so the Dodge engineers provided it with the biggest hood scoop the muscle car world had ever seen.
The hybrid supercar has a mid-engine layout, yet it still has two big hood scoops on the front. Are you wondering why? They are for the aerodynamics. When the air at high speed passes through them, it creates the downforce that keeps the P1 firmly on the ground. So, those scoops not only look cool, they are highly effective.
Ferrari presented the F40 in 1987. They conceived the car as a commemorative model, marking the company’s 40th anniversary. However, it was much more than that. It was and still is one of the greatest sports cars they ever built. Most car fans consider it to be one of the best Ferraris they ever produced.
Since they equipped it with a 2.9-liter twin turbo V8, it needed a lot of air for the performance and for cooling. So, Ferrari gave it exactly 10 NACA-duct scoops. There are two in the front and the rest are on the sides and the back.
The Shaker is a hood scoop they mounted on top of the car’s intake system that sticks through the hood. Since it is an integral part of the engine, it also moves and shakes as the engine works; hence the name. Most popular shakers were Dodges and Plymouths, but almost all other muscle car brands have at least one model with this feature.
Even though the heyday of hood scoops was over by the early 2000s, Pontiac still offered one of the most aggressive designs they ever produced. They added twin scoops on the nose of the powerful and fast Firebird Trans Am WS6. With the venerable 5.7-liter V8 engine producing 325 HP, a six-speed manual transmission and numerous suspension upgrades, the 2002 WS6 could accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 4.8 seconds. And that kind of speed was what required this hood scoop design.
Trucks don’t need hood scoops in most cases, but if you own Dodge RAM SRT 10, you will know a scoop is a necessity. The 8.2-liter V10 engine pumps out over 500 HP. It has a 0 to 60 acceleration time of fewer than five seconds. Also, the fuel economy in the single digits needs a lot of extra air to feed the engine.
The Coronet was one of the intermediates in the Mopar stable consumer could order with a 440 or Hemi engine. This meant the Coronet, especially in R/T trim was a serious muscle car contender and a properly fast street racer. Although hood scoops were part of the package, Dodge gave the Coronet R/T two big ones that fed the carburetors through a complex system of tubes.
These are the 20 best hood scoops they ever made. While some were just for show, others had serious work to do. A timeless design feature, hood scoops will always be popular on most sports and muscle cars but are a staple on all race cars.