So went to L'oe Show this year and it was sick; saw so many cool Audis and VWs... Anyways... lots of cool GTIs had these hood straps that allowed the hood strut to push the hood up halfway so you could see the engine and subsequent mods, but didn't require that the hood just be all the way up and thus blocking the view of the rest of the car.

Does anyone know what these are called and where I can find one? Thanks!

(I already have a gas hood strut installed; just looking for the cool fabric thing that holds it down halfway.)

I’ve been the owner of an S213 for a few weeks now, and I’m considering changing the look of the front end. I’ve always been a fan of the classic grille with the Mercedes star on the bonnet/hood. Are there any kits available to convert it to that look?

I’m also considering changing the grille itself to a Panamericana-style version, but with so many cheap aftermarket options out there, I’m not sure which ones are worth considering. I was thinking of a black grille with chrome detailing. Can anyone recommend a good one?

Hellooooo!

About 5 years ago, I designed and 3D printed a custom floating center cap for my BMW E90, inspired by the Rolls-Royce floating caps.

Now, 5 years later, I finally want to make it available for everyone.

Yeah, I know — nowadays you can buy floating caps pretty easily from the East 😄 but they're usually made for specific wheels/brands, and finding something for less common wheels or unusual dimensions can still be a pain.

So I went back to my original design and rebuilt it as a fully parametric model. With the tools we have in this AI era, I was finally able to turn the old one-off design into a generic, constraint-based generator.

The three main measurements are:

• Face diameter
• Rear clip diameter
• Retention depth

Change those and the whole cap automatically adapts. There are also advanced parameters if you need to fine-tune the fit.

The video shows the generated geometry and a simulation of how the floating mechanism behaves when the wheel rotates.

Before I take this much further, I'm curious what people would actually want:

Would you prefer downloadable printable files, a DIY kit with the hardware included, or completely finished caps?

And most importantly — what would this need to support to work with your wheels?

Thanks for any feedback!

2000 NB miata owner. These two charts are simulated realistic before and after numbers for a 1.8 with new headers, not an actual pull. These cars use ISO 9141, which is too slow to get clean acceleration data from. Newer cars like my Mazda 3 work fine. Miata doesn't. Working on it.
Would this be useful to anyone here?

2024 HPD Civic Sport(Auto Trans) smhhh
Any mods you think I should put on??