AutoExe Bonnet Damper
 

I had Prova units on my WRX before and loved them, so I splurged and picked these up through VividRacing:

They're great!

Any downside? Drill holes?

I see you got the ones intended for a Velocity Red car :)

Only downside was the $$... otherwise it was a 15 minute install:
1. remove the 2 hood bolts/insert hood shock plate/retighten bolts.
2. replace the factory bolt on the fenderwell with the included pivot-head bolt.
3. snap damper end onto pivot-head bolt
4. repeat for other side

You can have any color dampers you want, as long as they're red...
http://babelfish.altavista.com/babel....html&lp=ja_en

How much were these? I can get a kit for my focus for around $50. Might work for the 8 too.

Re: AutoExe Bonnet Damper
 

Can you give us a part number? I went to their site and couldn't find these.

Thanks!

shoot they sell for ~300... take a look :
http://www.boomplustoys.net/autoexe_rx8.shtml

in my smallest unobtrusive voice... "And what do these dampers do exactly?"

Just what I'm looking for....
 

These take the place of the cheesy 'hood prop' which I feel cheapens the whole look of the engine bay.

The Euro-Spec cars come with these, or it is a Mazda option - could someone in the U.K. let us know how much and who to order from?

Pretty please....?
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doc

UK cars come with the hood prop as standard. The "bonnet dampers" as they are known over here, are £99.95, which is more than a few of your $Canadian.

The hood of the RX8 is paper light aluminium, a fraction of a steel one, so its not going to kill you lifting it once a week or so to check the oil.

Cheers
---Dave

Kind of like the model T. ;)

thanks for the link squidward

I'm too cheap for that part
300 is high

Hey wait, I didn't know you could choose red with those... :D
:cool: a red model T... now that's sumthin' :D

looks clean though...how fast does it come up??

does it make the hood bulge? i was hesitant on putting these on my miata a long while ago because of the chance it might bulge.

santino

XDEEDUBBX: The hood doesn't fly up, but (trying to relate it to something you may better envision) it comes up a tad bit slower than the navi screen popping up... or maybe a moderate-speed garage door opening... or about the same speed a 90y.o. with a tennis-ball-outfitted walker would lift the lightweight hood, but much more smoothly and with no groaning or complaints about what they were doing there, lifting your hood for your lazy ass.

santino: I'm afraid I don't understand about the hood bulging?

If you guys are in the area this Thursday: https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...referrerid=619

$350 is a bit dear :(

I ensure it looks cool with a touch of Euro feel to it.

I am not sure ---- $350... another $100 or so can get me a cold air intake.

I guess that by "bulging" santino means that the dampers are trying to push to hood open all the time... so when it is closed there is upward pressure from te dampers trying to open the hood, so making it "bulge" up...

I kinda like the idea though... looks kewl. Does the hood slowly open up by itself? Or do you still have to lift it?

how does it close? do you have to slam the hood down?

Um, correct me if I'm wrong, but £99.95 is NOT $300 US. Where did that number come from? If they really DO cost that much, perhaps Druck could arrange to get some for those of us that are interested? :)
My questions too.

Bulging: No. When closed, the shocks are exerting pressure parallel to the ground and towards the rear of the car... the hood wouldn't bulge b/c of that.

Opening the hood: You still need to reach under and undo the hood latch, then lift the hood about 4" before the dampers will do the rest of the heavy lifting... Their novelty is comparable to manual windows vs. power windows.

Closing the hood: Pull the hood about 3/4-way down w/one or two fingers and from 4" or so, push down gently to assist gravity so it'll latch solidly. Kinda hard to explain...

These may be really helpful for people with no opposable thumbs to use the hood prop. I have two, but I have to pace myself and reserve their use for important things.

UK dampers: If I had known... probably could've saved $100 or so... the things we learn...

Rob

I would be more concerned about bending or kinking the hood when first trying to close it... with the hood up, the strut support point is very close to the hinge point. If one of those struts siezes you could bend the hood...
Just a thought..

I'd still like to know if we can get these in the US...

And then you get a nice new crease across your hood. :eek:

Oops. I'm with you, MadMAX, I wouldn't risk it. Call me conservative though!

Cheers,
Hymee.

So where is the Euro version? what is part #? how can we get some for less than $200?