Long bonnet or not?

[Asimo]

Recent excitement* initiated by jaGuar's pink thing                        https://www.jaguar.co.uk/copy-nothing/jaguar-type-00.html

and then yet another video about the "E-Type of the future"    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWLVJuEDjoM&t=9s

 

 

prompts the question: when you drive do you prefer to see bonnet,

or to see no bonnet in your view?

Unlike many questions in motoring I am quite sure about my answer: no bonnet view for me,  just the road and the scenery please.

 

*I found watching the reflected sky or streetlamp  in the shiny long bonnets of cars such as a Marina to be distracting.

**But when I crashed my BMW I did benefit from the long and crumply bonnet.

 

 

 

[Zelandeth]

I quite enjoy being able to see it - though in the same breath I've owned maybe half a dozen cars where you can actually see the bonnet without having to deliberately lean forward.

The only one I remember being actively annoying was on the Lada as it was so flat that it just turned into a giant mirror directing the sun straight in your face at the wrong time of day.

[Supernaut]

I enjoy seeing the bonnet too.

The SLK was nice, as is my 323i. Plus I have a bit of a history with series Land Rovers.

In both my mk3 Megane and the mk8 Civic I used to have, I just have to take an educated guess as to where the front left corner is. Something about the shape of those cars just knocks me off kilter.

[comfortablynumb]

Bonnet all the way for me, I've had capris, and having to guess where the car ends isn't a fun game😁

[Datsuncog]

I like a bonnet - I find it makes everything much easier in a car park scenario, and I can't say I've encountered any of the shiny-surface drawbacks mentioned upthread.

Could be because I seldom wash and almost never polish my cars, mind...

Last car I owned where the bonnet was visible from the driver's seat was my Volvo 240.

[Captain Mainwaring]

I love it personally, the 340 has a great view down the bonnet, and combined with its wallowy cornering (compared to my Mazda 2) it feels much bigger than it is.

[Marina door handles]

I quite like a bit of bonnet, especially if its got a bit of shape to it, like obvious front wings. It just makes a nice view out IMHO. 

[bunglebus]

Don't mind really, but I can say it's fun watching your mate shit himself when you take him out in a VW T3 van and pull up close to cars in front, he was using his imaginary brake pedal a lot 😆

[Lord Sterling]

Not that bothered either way. It is nice to see the bonnet of Jag though when wafting along. The Vectra doesn't really offer that but then it's an everyday runner rather than a stylish car.

[Six-cylinder]

I can tell you when you go over a hump back bridge in an E Type  you lose all forward vision for a moment when front of the car lifts pointing to the sky. In my case a red out!

[AnnoyingPentium]

I like being able to see the bonnet when driving, especially when parking. With my seating position in the Vectra, I can see exactly where the front of the car ends.

[Missy Charm]

I wonder if the inclusion of the bonnet within one's line of sight is a product of height or seating position, or both.  Only ask as I've never been able to see the bonnet from the driver's seat of any car I've been in, but I have driven a number of motors mentioned in this thread as having visible bonnets.  Odd.  

[Six-cylinder]

I do like following the Three Pointed Star in an older Mercedes.

[HMC]

As I have a small penis (isnt that actually what this is all about?) i love a long bonnet to satisfy my inadequacy

 

https://nypost.com/2023/02/09/men-with-small-penises-are-more-likely-to-buy-sports-cars-study/

[Sham]

I like to see a bonnet, but the car I owned with the longest snout (an XJS) bugged the hell out of me at every crossroads - felt like you needed to be in the middle of the road to see anything. 

I did like knowing there was a very large engine there, though 😁

[danthecapriman]

I have a Capri so I love to see the bonnet reaching out front! 
Also there’s acres of bonnet visible on the Mercury with a crosshairs hood ornament out there for aiming the rig with!😄

[D.E]

Yes.

[DSdriver]

I like to see the bonnet, in the case of my Corsair the blistering paint warned me the engine bay was on fire!

Here is the view driving a DS

 

Ansd here is a DS after it has rained

 

[Mrcento]

Bonnet every day of the week. I don't mind 'not' seeing it 99% of the time, as long as you can lean up and just about see it, just as a reference point for getting out of tight spaces etc. There are certain cars where the seating position is a little 'eccentric' where i actually find just having that fixed reference point at all times really helps with road positioning as well. I.e seeing all corners just adds confidence in all situations.

I'd actually argue a little that was one of the things i also never liked on the spaceship Civic, it doesn't have much going on in front of you, but the raked front and slightly centred seating position always made it feel a bit of a fat bastard, and not having that bonnet sliver out front for an extra reference of corners just amplified it.

[stuboy]

 

[Dick Cheeseburger]

51 minutes ago, DSdriver said:

I like to see the bonnet, in the case of my Corsair the blistering paint warned me the engine bay was on fire!

Here is the view driving a DS

 

Ansd here is a DS after it has rained

 

That's @Mr_Bo11ox old Argenta, isn't it? I wonder what happened to it? I seem to remember it sitting around a fair bit before he sold it. 

As for long bonnet, I always liked the pop-ups which marked the end of the bonnet on previous MX5s and my old Celica GT4 Carlos Sainz. 

[PhilA]

I enjoy seeing the hood of the car, reminds me what I'm driving and why I bought it. 

[worldofceri]

10 hours ago, Dick Cheeseburger said:

That's @Mr_Bo11ox old Argenta, isn't it? I wonder what happened to it? 

Yes it is. I think I might have been driving it in that photo.

[St.Jude]

I like having a bonnet as it allows me to park by feel.

[DSdriver]

2 hours ago, worldofceri said:

Yes it is. I think I might have been driving it in that photo.

On the way in to Chumley show.

[DSdriver]

2 hours ago, St.Jude said:

I like having a bonnet as it allows me to park by feel.

I used to call it parking by ear but nowadays you get sensors bleeping at you.

[MikeR]

long bonnet is handy for moving the headlights further away from you , especially in fog , which I found rather interesting with the short bonnet on the C1 which basically lit up the air in front of the windscreen with its headlights !

but for everyday pottering about a short bonnet is good for parking but not for engine noise ..

[St.Jude]

24 minutes ago, DSdriver said:

I used to call it parking by ear but nowadays you get sensors bleeping at you.

So did I until I discovered the sensors on the Land Cruiser can fail off (when I’m told they fail on). And the first I knew about it I was rubbing paint with the car of my wife’s friend’s parents, and the last I heard of it was when I lost 10 years no claims.

C’est La parking.