What's the deal with the tow hook?

wstar

This thread is hilarious

1) Yes, it's racecar. Most track events will require you to put your towhook into your streetcar, if applicable, before you go out on track. For us that means get the one out of the trunk and screw it into the front and you're done. Pretty much every prepped, dedicated track car I've seen has one or more tow hooks (or tow straps, which seems even better) in the front and rear, and often they're clearly labeled, like the tow hook arrow picture posted earlier in this thread. You're making life easier for the tow-truck guy when you run off-track and need to be pulled out. You don't want him to end up not finding it and having to hook up somewhere else and break something. You'd think it would be easy to spot a tow-hook, but it might not be when your car is bogged down in gravel or mud several inches deep, is caked in mud and dirt, and has flowers and grass stuck all in the front grill, etc

2) It's mostly functionally pointless to have it installed on the street. If you run your car off in a ditch, and the front is accessible for towing, you can get out of the car and install the tow hook at that time. The reason they're in-place ahead of time on the track is that for safety reasons you're not allowed to exit your car during a track event unless it's on fire. So you can't get out and install that towhook while you're sitting 20 ft off the side of the track in a corner. It's too dangerous. Someone else might spin out in the same place and nail you, and you'd much rather be strapped into your car with a helmet on if that happens.

3) If it's a solid tow-hook that extends forward of the actual bumper (not the bumper cover: the real metal bumper underneath that has the screw hole...), you leave it in on the street, and you managed to rear-end someone, you'll probably significantly up the damages/cost to the other guy's car. The metal front bumper has styrofoam padding and then the plastic bumper cover to absorb minor impacts and spread the load over a wide surface area. Now all the load is going to hit his car on the tiny little point of first contact with that tow hook, and it's going to stab right through stuff with very little speed required. Even if it's a "fold-down" model, when folded it may be further back than the plastic bumper-cover, but it's still forward of the metal bumper and will still stab another car.

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