Hello, as the title says, I am just curious what the chance of the factory hood latch failing on these cars. I have seen a couple of videos recently of other users hoods flying up on them while either on the highway or while doing a pull. I recently got my car repainted and I'm currently building the motor to push over 500hp, and wasn't sure if I needed hood pins to prevent this from happening. Most of these are from high hp Hondas. I was just looking for second opinions, thanks!

 

With a properly aligned hood, latch in good shape and no rust issues, it will hold >150mph easy.
BUT with the added acceleration, twist to the chassis from the additional power you will be applying to the chassis, it can't hurt to add hood pins. (as painful as those holes are to drill)

IMO, pins with the factory latch are piece of mind to prevent air from getting under the outer front edges of the hood causing lift or side to side oscillations, which can cause the factory latch to break away or fail. Especially when you go with a CF hood which tend to have larger gaps.

 

That’s why BMW uses 2 hood latches. There are already some holes you can uses near your headlights for the pins.

Pop off your bumper, remove your headlights, shut the hood, get a sharpie, stick it through the middle of each hole, and make a mark on the hood. That’s where you’ll drill a hole.

If you get 14mm pins, those preexisting holes will need to be drilled out slightly, and the holes you drill in the hood will need to be 5/8” - 11/16” before centering and fastening the little plates to the top of the hood.

Remember to spray a little paint on the bare metal hole edges after drilling to stop them from rusting.

 

I appreciate both of the answers, I will look into getting some hood pins now, thanks again!