Some of the Best Car Scoops, Vents, and Ducts

Car bodywork is as fun to discuss with fellow gearheads as it is to look at. Many vehicles have their paneling designed by an intersection of engineers and designers to strike a balance between beauty and aerodynamic efficiency. However, given that teams don’t always work in perfect tandem, there is always a variance to the results; as many times as you get a perfect combination, you also get something that looks amazing but functions poorly (or vice versa). Today we’re celebrating this phenomenon in regard to one of the most contentious car body features: scoops, vents, or anything else that claims to have a big impact on a car’s cooling ability. Our aim is to highlight both the high highs and the visually impressive (but perhaps practically underwhelming) middle grounds.

Ford Mustangs

The Ford Mustang debuted in 1964 with its iconic side body panels that gradually cave to a side scoop. This design choice has remained consistent throughout the model’s history, even with departures from the traditional look of the Mustang like the 1996-2004 models. Special editions, like the Shelby GT350 below, mix it up, reversing the direction of the scoop but keeping the sloping side panel the same. It’s simple and visually sets the Mustang apart. What more do you need?

Ferrari?

Ferrari has pretty much zero misses when it comes to designing beautiful vehicles, and its over-the-top side and rear ducts are part of that art. There are the classic, almost triangular scoops from the F40 that accent its arrowhead front end perfectly, and the 5-channel side panel vents on the Testarossa that look like they’ve been created with the scrape of a painter’s tool. On this side of the millennium, Ferrari’s sloping intakes transform into gouges, like the arm’s length rear slice on the 458 Spider and the massive leaf-shapes swooshes that adorn the LaFerrari. Are any of these scoops practical? Perhaps some of them! But digging into practicality when it comes to a Ferrari is like seeing how aerodynamic a roller coaster car is–just hop in and have fun instead!

Porsche

The famously sleek design of the Porsche 911 may lead you to believe that this German manufacturer isn’t in the business of scoops, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Porsche’s bigger cars that are less sports- and more super- have some of the most over-the-top bodywork choices of cars in recent memory. First came the GT1 Evo, a shining example of classic 90’s angularity that has a wealth of intakes, including a large scoop on the side, a few on the hood, and a massive one on the roof that’s almost helmetlike. The Carrera GT of the mid-2000s toned down the number of vents and focused on a pointed scoop that accented the door panel, only to be rapidly outdone by the 918 Spyder’s wicked top-to-bottom slice a few years later. Definitely a company that’s looking for recognition at the scoop hall of fame.

Pontiac Firebirds

One of America’s most beloved muscle cars has always been visually outstanding. We mean this in the most literal sense: for better or worse, nothing looks like a Firebird. We’ll start with the 70s. Firebirds here had iconic massive hoods, always with some manner of intake for the engine. Side scoops in front of the doors were here too, a strange departure from the angular and in-your-face features of the rest of the car that was iconic nonetheless. But when we get to the 2000s, things take a turn for the weirder. Everywhere you look on the front of the Y2K models, there’s a slit, a scoop, an intake of some kind. The end result is like the face of a futuristic snake: something you might marvel at…but not something you necessarily want to be close to.

Aston Martin

This British automotive powerhouse has two general approaches to side scoops. Their first style is similar to the Mustangs above, where the same scoop acts as a “tag” to link iconic vehicles across the decades. Icon scoops like these are consistent across the DB5, AMV8, and Vantage with a few tweaks to match the individual car’s personality. In their second approach, the personality of the car is defined by the vents; the One-77’s doors are decorated with two concave half-barrels, and the Victor (although technically a concept car) has a ribbed hood scoop, ribbed intakes along the sides, and giant slits near the rear. When you take a look at the whole Aston lineup like this, there’s excitement to be found in both the class of their past work and the boldness of their future ideas.

Chevrolet Corvette

Corvette is America’s longest running sports/supercar, and for good reason. Besides being a consistent Hi-Po option for U.S. gearheads, the Corvette’s multiple incarnations always bring some exciting visual flair to the table. This means that if you’re looking for scoops, you’ve come to the right place. 1956 introduced the classic Corvette look that became world-famous, complete with the white side scoop that is remembered fondly to this day. When the 60s rolled around and completely revamped the Corvette with the Stingray body, side vents were once again part of the imagery, this time resembling the gills of a big fish. Variations of this “gill” style slit were in use once again on the 90s models, and then a forward-facing concavity similar to the Ford Mustang became the norm in the early 2000s. From the mid 2010s to today, Corvette vents have taken the jump from sleek decoration to the over-the-top spaceship-like iterations common on European supercars. Not that we mind the change at all; the massive rear scoops on Stingray models in the 2020s are as amazing to look at as the 50s side scoops are nostalgic.

It’s amazing how impactful scoops and other similar molding techniques are when it comes to the visual identity of a car, especially considering that they are effectively the lack of bodywork.? We know that our readers are passionate about this topic as well, so let us know which of your favorite scoops we missed. And be prepared–you never know what new favorites you’ll have to add to the list in the years to come!