Is hood insulation necessary?

Dammit, AJ! I’ve been kicking around the idea of a hood scoop since I bought the car, but I really wanted to keep it clean looking, and as unassuming as possible. Like, I want to keep it from looking like a hot rod if possible.

That said, everything I’ve done so far (and everything I’ll do in the future) will be purely functional and not cosmetic. Obviously a hood scoop would be very functional in this situation. In fact, the topic of a scoop came up in conversation when Pops was over yesterday.

I’m also extremely reluctant to go cutting up my hood. What if I screw up?? I’m confident if I take my time, I’ll do fine. Then comes the question of the finish work and paint matching. It’s something that done just enough reading up on to scare me away.

However, with temps topping 110F here in the summer, it may be a good move. I’ve noticed my water temp gets up to about 210 after 30 minutes on the interstate.