So I couldn't find a very definitive review of this part before purchasing, just a lot of hearsay and one video of the Racer style hood. I want to say upfront I am by no means experienced in body work at all. I have done a lot of work to my own car, including swapping the engine, but I have never once unbolted a body panel from my car. So this is my first experience.

I wanted a new hood because my stock hood had been in 4 fender benders and hadn't been repainted for over 60k miles, so needless to say the paint was trashed. I also had some bondo cracking and the hood just generally didn't fit 100% right after having so much work done. Buying a new OEM hood and having it painted was going to be ridiculously expensive for it to look exactly the same. I figured it was the perfect time to upgrade. Even if the hood didn't fit exactly right, I really didn't have much to lose.

I ordered my CC hood from CARiD for a total of $914.52 shipped to my door. It took 2 days by freight to come. The hood was well packaged and free of any cosmetic imperfections as a result of shipping. The hood itself can easily be lifted by one person. The construction is a fiberglass support frame that closely mimics the frame of the OEM hood, and the outer skin is carbon fiber with fiberglass on the inside. It comes with a hood scoop pre-attached that is the same carbon fiber weave and lines up relatively well with the rest of the hood.

Now it is worth noting that CC does not recommend gas hood struts/pistons OR using the stock hood latches for securing the hood. I was not about to start drilling holes in my car or brand new carbon fiber hood just to install hood pins. I was also not about to try and find a hood prop from another car that would fit in mine. It also should be noted that despite CC not recommending using the stock hood latches, they give you metal threaded inserts in the locations of the stock hood latch hardware that are the correct thread. So with that all being said, I used the stock hood latches and hood struts.

As for trim, the headlight rings absolutely will not attach to the CC hood with the stock clips. The carbon fiber skin is far too thick. I wound up cutting strips of 3M double sided tape to size and just sticking the headlight rings on. The upper grille trim I screwed on using the stock screws, but I did have to cut/snap off most of the other guides and clips. The only thing holding the upper grille trim on is the screws, which is more than secure enough. The windshield washer jets fit pretty much exactly as on the stock hood, I did have to file one of the slots slightly wider though. Took 2 minutes with a jeweler's file.

I also had to move over my AEM hood scoop attachment, which as far as I know no one has done before with this hood or any CF hood. Again, the fiberglass frame of this hood very closely mimics that of the OEM hood, and I suspect they just made the mold from an OEM hood. As such, there are indents where the holes to mount the AEM scoop would be, and they just need to be drilled out. I got new nail plugs as well and used a 19/64" drill bit to drill the holes. I lined up the scoop, pushed in the nail plugs and it was good to go.

As for the clips that hold the hoses and wiring for the washer jets, these hole locations are also indented and could easily be drilled out, however I elected to simply use stick-on cable clamps.

Install was pretty straightforward. Basically transfer all the trim from the old hood, unbolt it from the car, bolt on new hood. Overall I would give the fitment an 8/10. Without any adjustments it fit pretty well and I was able to close the hood once I got the hood latch loops set to the correct depth on the new hood. Playing around a little with the hinge position, bumpers, and headlights I was able to get it better but still not perfect.

My main complaint is the driver side. The fitment of the passenger side is pretty close to perfect, but not so on the driver side. It's hard to tell if it's just the mold they use or some other part of the manufacturing process, but it's as if the hood is slightly warped in a way that it's raised in the front driver side corner. The panel gap around the headlight is about finger width at the top and basically nonexistent at the bottom instead of uniform all the way around. There is a finger width gap between the fender arch and the hood starting at about the middle of the arch going forward. The gap between the hood and the bumper is bigger on the driver side than on the passenger side but it's not overly noticeable. The pointed section towards the back of the hood near the side scuttle is also pressed in which is not an issue on the passenger side. If you stand about 5 feet away, none of this is immediately apparent though. And unless I pointed it out to my friends, none of them really noticed these issues.

My philosophy with the fitment is this: At the end of the day, it's a carbon fiber hood. It's a race car part. No one expects race cars to have perfect body lines. And it was still about the same as my previously damaged hood.

Overall I'm happy with my purchase. The depth of the carbon fiber is really nice and is immediately distinguishable from a fake CF wrap. I decided to replace the stock badges with the new F56 style blackout badges which match nicely. The new hood does not have location holes for badges so you could easily go badgeless as well.

Now for the pictures. If you want more detail than what is provided I can try to take more when I can, just reply to this thread or direct message me (preferred).

 

appreciate the review. looks good

 

Thank you for taking the time to put this up for us!


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Update on this hood regarding the AEM hood scoop. I got the AEM strut bar for Christmas. The AEM intake box, hood scoop attachment, strut bar, and CC hood just don't want to work together at all. Wound up taking the hood attachment off to run the strut bar. Gonna make up a plate to convert the AEM intake to a closed box system. :/

 

Shame, but I’m looking forward to seeing how it all turns out!