Hood Scoop Cut Out

One of the most debated topics between “R” Code Cyclone Ram Air owners is the hood opening. There are two different cutouts to be found under that black hood scoop on Ram Air Cyclone Spoilers. One is what you would expect, a large mostly round hole. The other is the same but the “cross” is not completely cut out. It is actually the same large hole but with a cross or pie cut with 4 smaller holes.

Whichever hole is in an owner’s hood is usually fiercely defended as the way the car was built and original to the factory build. After all, it is easy to cut the cross out of a hood but next to impossible to put one back in. If the factory cut it out, no owner would put it back in, would they? The other side would argue, why would the factory have a ram air scoop and leave it partially blocked by a big cross in the middle of the hole?

Thanks to Marty Burke, Chief Judge for the Fairlane Club of America and loyal Team Member on this site, we have a definitive answer. Which is it? Could it be that both are correct? Read on.

A lot has been said about which is correct for the R code. This is taken from the factory assembly manual. As you can see it says to remove the cross on all R codes. However, we now know that this wasn’t always done.

So from a judging standpoint on R code cars, Marty says he would prefer all the early cars (August-January) to have the cross cut and the later cars either way. That being said, Marty states that there will be no point deduction for an R code car if an early car shows up with a cross.

Marty further states that the hood cut out instructions are for all R code intermediates including 68/69 Cyclones, Torino’s and Cobras.

Now you know…but you can still argue over if your hood was cut out at the factory or by a previous owner! After all, we need stuff to talk about at shows!