Car Photo of the Day: A sweetly bulging bonnet.

There is something aesthetic to purposeful variations to otherwise clean lines of a machine. The intake scoop of the C-type Jaguar. The twin bonnet ribs of the Mercedes-Benz 300sl (meant to provide clearance for the intake manifold and cam cover.) The big brake cooling ducts of the Ferrari 250P. The tidy little bump pictured above. Their purpose gives them reason for being. Form following function. Vorsprung Durch Technik. Ja?

There is something equally ugly to purposeless doo-dads applied onto a car made to make it appear sporty. The stuck-on ducts and bulges of the Pontiac Trans-Am from the “screaming chicken” era. Big wings on the rear of FWD “rice rockets”. The fake cloth tops on 80s luxury cars. These are out of place affectations. Automotive poseurs. These sorts of insults to our intelligence and aesthetics have appeared on some major-league players as well (Ferrari comes to mind) so I’m not just picking on low-hanging fruit here.

4 thoughts on “Car Photo of the Day: A sweetly bulging bonnet.”

  2. I loved that bonnet bulge in the TR4 I used to have. I’m equally insulted by any sort of fake scoop/wing/bulge. Mechanical things should have an honesty and integrity to them.

  3. In my mind, one of *THE* worst offenses was the ‘shaker’ hood on some 70s American muscle cars. Most weren’t even functioning scoops: they were a scoop-shaped lid for the air cleaner that just stuck thru a hole in the hood.
    Buick’s holes in the fender? At least they had a reality-based ‘raison d’etre.’

    http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/your_garage/cars/7386.shtml

    Don’t EEEEVEN git me started on “Continental” kits.

    🙁

    EeeeeYUCK. Along with the aforementioned “screaming chickens’ on the hoods of Firechickens, those make me throw up a little in my mouth!

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