NACA HOODS FOR '71 TO '73 MUSTANGS. CORRECT OR INCORRECT!

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My final word on this subject is in the 1971 movie "Diamonds are Forever", Jill St. John liked the NASA hood on the red 71 Mustang. That is all I need to know.
Gotta love a Hot Red Head !!
 
Any guy who has dated a Redhead, knows Redheaded girls are something......But I digress....personally,regarding the NACA/NASA style Mustang hoods, I think the '71-'73 Ram Air hoods are better looking than the '69-'70 Shelby hoods, but then I think the whole '71-'73 Mach 1 was a much cleaner design than the '69-'70 Shelbys. Shelbys made after Carroll ceased to manufacture them, anf Ford took over, just got a bit "George Barris-y " to my taste. I'm sure to hear it now...
 
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Any guy who has dated a Redhead, knows Redheaded girls are something......But I digress....personally,regarding the NACA/NASA style Mustang hoods, I think the '71-'73 Ram Air hoods are better looking than the '69-'70 Shelby hoods, but then I think the whole '71-'73 Mach 1 was a much cleaner design than the '69-'70 Shelbys. Shelbys made after Carroll ceased to manufacture them, anf Ford took over, just got a bit "George Barris-y " to my taste. I'm sure to hear it now...
Try being married to one, LOL, ask me and my son in law!
 
I think we can all conclude that the 71-73 NASA hoods are cool, regardless of how effective they are or whether the scoops are NACA ducts or not. I'm sure even if they were a huge aerodynamic burden, most of us would still rock them, because... look at them. Plus, I'm sure aerodynamics isn't really a factor for the majority of us. That said, I'd still love to stick one of these cars in a wind tunnel and see what the Ford guys got right and what they got wrong. Because curiosity.
 
Anybody got a picture of the cougar eliminator hood on a flat 7173 hood. That seems like it would be a nice looking combination.
 
Anybody got a picture of the cougar eliminator hood on a flat 7173 hood. That seems like it would be a nice looking combination.
Not exactly eliminator, but my best option due to cost and speed of acquisition
 

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Any guy who has dated a Redhead, knows Redheaded girls are something......But I digress....personally,regarding the NACA/NASA style Mustang hoods, I think the '71-'73 Ram Air hoods are better looking than the '69-'70 Shelby hoods, but then I think the whole '71-'73 Mach 1 was a much cleaner design than the '69-'70 Shelbys. Shelbys made after Carroll ceased to manufacture them, anf Ford took over, just got a bit "George Barris-y " to my taste. I'm sure to hear it now...
Spike, thank for digressing, even if inadvertently (heh heh). For the record, I never dated a red head - not for any particular reason. It just never worked that way for me, so I will accept your words as being gospel- thank you. Anyway, I am partial to both the 71-73 NACA/NASA hoods and the 69-70 Shelby hoods, almost equally. But, the 71-73 design actually looks just a tad fiercer to me. Especially when there are call-out characters involved next to the scoop itself!
https://youtu.be/_Fl0B-qmlLI
 

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I'm not trying to dredge up a long dormant thread, but I've been thinking a lot about our Ram Air hoods. So being the engineer I am, I thought I'd dig in a bit about the pros and cons of them. I found a good article explaining what's going on and the science behind them. Sorry, it's a bit technical but I believe everyone will understand it:
https://xplrcreate.com/2013/06/15/n...NACA Duct flows 55,of turbulent air and drag.
 
I'm not trying to dredge up a long dormant thread, but I've been thinking a lot about our Ram Air hoods. So being the engineer I am, I thought I'd dig in a bit about the pros and cons of them. I found a good article explaining what's going on and the science behind them. Sorry, it's a bit technical but I believe everyone will understand it:
https://xplrcreate.com/2013/06/15/n...NACA Duct flows 55,of turbulent air and drag.
Looking forward to reading this article !!
While I have a nice NASA hood that I will probably put on the car someday, in the meantime I found a really nice 69-70 scoop, that I put on our less than perfect, formally damaged, flat hood, after seeing how nice it looked on Luxstangs Stang. I haven't hitched up the lights to the directional signals yet. I just wanted to show my wife what they will look like, so I lit them up .
 

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If any of you doubt I didn't wreck a good flat hood, these pictures should show you the truth. Lol. I think I'm going to paint the inset part the same color semi gloss black I painted the scoop, and then put a quarter inch pin stripe around the outside of it. I got the idea from this Facebook Marketplace ad. I think it will look really good with the black scoop. If it's not enough, I'll do the rest of the flat lower portion later. just experimenting a little bit until I get the NASA hood put on someday.
 

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There was one Mustang that actually had 1 NACA scoop, but it was a 1970 ShelbyView attachment 75913
That picture is really worth seeing again. You can really see how Ford used the previous year Shelby to direct the design of the following year Mustang redesign change. That really is a sharp looking design. For the record, my target years for a Mustang ownership end at '70. That is until I found the one I own now. Realized this was the softer hit on a popularity driven sales price.

As far as the profile or static plane of the hood is concerned with NACA, NASA, whatever, if you look at the basic design of scoops during the '60's, they protruded out and above the hood. The rear brake scoops on this Shelby are an example just as the Boss 429, Boss 302 and Mach 1's of '69-'70in addition to the entire MOPAR line or any Shaker style. Chevy (GM) used mostly the cowl induction type to take advantage of the air pressure off the windshield.

Looking at the shape of the '71-'73 hood, it is a designed contour so imho, it fits the criteria very well. I will say this though, on a cool summer evening, you disable the vacuum on the duct doors and there is a noticeable difference in how the Mustang responds. There's an awful lot of cfm that hood can generate too. I'm sure that really the case for most but I've driven only Mustangs so can't compare to the others.
 
Let's start a GoFundMe page to collect for renting a wind tunnel for testing. There are many other features that I would like to get tested.
Curious on how much improvement will be made by having body panels fit tight together? windows flush with body? removing or making drain rails flush with body? How much downforce is really created by the front wing and rear wing? How much is gained by smoothing the undercarriage? Is there any gain from adding a seal between hood and radiator support? and now.... how does air flow around NACA hood?
My guess is that $50,000 will get us there :D
Noticed a difference in stability when I replaced the broken spoiler on my '72. Anything above 50 seemed to be the point it tracked better. I believe that and the wood do work in conjunction on the car. Don't know what a rear wing would do for a ragtop but I'm not certain the DW will be happy if I add that. It's tough enough justifying many things I'm doing so, a fight never fought is the best one.
 
I'm not trying to dredge up a long dormant thread, but I've been thinking a lot about our Ram Air hoods. So being the engineer I am, I thought I'd dig in a bit about the pros and cons of them. I found a good article explaining what's going on and the science behind them. Sorry, it's a bit technical but I believe everyone will understand it:
https://xplrcreate.com/2013/06/15/n...NACA Duct flows 55,of turbulent air and drag.
Thank you for posting. Great article as a general comparison. The location in the hood will also play a role as for the amount of air flowing through it.
 
If any of you doubt I didn't wreck a good flat hood, these pictures should show you the truth. Lol. I think I'm going to paint the inset part the same color semi gloss black I painted the scoop, and then put a quarter inch pin stripe around the outside of it. I got the idea from this Facebook Marketplace ad. I think it will look really good with the black scoop. If it's not enough, I'll do the rest of the flat lower portion later. just experimenting a little bit until I get the NASA hood put on someday.
BTW If anyone in the New England, New York or New Jersey, even a bit further has a really nice flat hood, I'm in the market for one in case I ever decide to go back to stock. I let mine go to 72Sprint, and now I regret that decision. 😝
 
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