The 62 Valiant
As I began to prepare the Valiant for a fifth Drag Week journey, fixing or building a new hood was the first hurdle, but it wasn't my only concern. After the 128 mph at Indy, the mph had seemed to fall off, so once again I wondered about the health of the front clutch pack in the 904. The constant battle with engine temp was still on my agenda as well, as it seemed worse on the last drive of DW15.
I wanted to change up the scoop, and to that end had ordered a reverse tear drop, and a Pontiac SD scoop from VFN fiberglass, but were told they were 10 weeks out! My fiberglass guru agreed to make a mold from my last good 62 Valiant hood, and I took it to him about 6 weeks into my wait for the scoops. He finished making a mold and popping out a hood quicker than VFN got the scoops to me, so he used another mold he had on hand to add a RTD scoop.
I was happy with the initial mock-up, but when I attempted to mount a 16" ram-air breather, it became abundantly clear that it wasn't going to work! The Valiant hood slopes off so fast towards the front and the sides that a scoop to cover up a large diameter breather would take up most of the hood!