The internal combustion engine is, in essence, an air pump. It pulls air in, mixes it with fuel, hits it with a spark, and kaboom – we have motivation. Heat works against this process though, so anything that can be done to cool the air going into the motor benefits performance. Think of hood scoops as the original cold air intake, shoving outside air directly into the motor rather than forcing it to travel through a hot engine bay to reach its destination.

During the heyday of the muscle car craze of the late 1960s and early 70s, manufacturers brought a number of different hood scoop designs to market, from the non-functional types found on early Pontiac GTOs to vacuum-operated scoops like the Air Grabber on the Plymouth Road Runner and GTX and the cowl induction systems used on models like the Chevrolet Chevelle. All of them had their merits, be it aesthetic, performance, or both – but none of them had the outright cool factor of the Shaker hood scoop.

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