Since I am club racing my A4, one of the Rules is to have a second hood tie or lock ie: Factory Bonnet catch plus a strap or hold down clips etc.<br>I do not want to drill through my bonnet to install posts and clips.<br>Can any one suggest any other ideas that will not ruin the hood or look out of place.

What about a bungee cord hooked into the grill on both ends and running under the license plate frame? That is, if you have the front plate mounted. It appears to be mounted fairly securely. I can imagine other variations of this using straps instead of a bungee cord if needed to meet the rules. If the grille doesn't appear strong enough, you could probably find something to hood to inside the hood and just run the strap/cord through the grill.<p> This type of arrangement would have the advantage of being totally removeable. If you are concerned about any rub points, you can use tape on the body/grille/bumper temporarily.

The A4 has a secondary catch, activated by upward movement against the safety catch after the primary catch has been actuated. The purpose of this stipulation in most rulebooks is to prevent hoods and forward movable panels from flipping up and interfering with the driver's line-of-sight, causing a dangerous situation. While many racing ///M3's have clamp latches on either side of the hood, the clamp lock points are usually part of the hood panel, and would be difficult to integrate as a retrofit. Check with your local sanctioning body as to what hood designs are allowed and disallowed. If older Jaguars and/or older Corvettes are being raced in your division or a division using the same rulebook variant, check if rear-facing hood hinges are affected by the rulebook. If they are allowed, the concern is a hood flip, and the stock catch system may be adequate. If these hoods are also disallowed, it is a panel-lock clause in the rules, and will require all movable panels to be "properly" secured prior to each run, check what is proper and what is not, the back of your rulebook should have a list of telephone numbers for the sanctioning body and an address for teams to send rule qualification requests, either will work for your question.<p>Cameron<br>