Check your bonnet safety catches
 

Gents,
Worth checking your bonnet safety catches, its expensive when this happens:

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...64_44513_n.jpg

OMG. What speed were you doing when that happend? What about the damage to the bonnet?

Was doing 80, had been working on the car and after completing the work, before going for the test drive forgot to check i'd shut the bonnet, and for some reason my safety catch didn't catch, not quite sure why.
Luckily because of the curve of the bonnet its possible to see underneath it so you can sort of see where you're going.

I've since got hold of a Rover 800 bonnet catch that has a built in switch, this is going to be wired up to a warning light on the dash.

Possible explanation for failure of safety catch
 

Been thinking about your accident. Most safety catches operate sideways or towards the front. The Vortex safety catch, as fitted on my machine, has a wide flat surface and operates towards the back of the car. Could it be that, when travelling at speed, the pressure of the air acting against safety catch forced it open?

I like the idea of a warning light to show that the bonnet is not closed properly. I thought about an in bonnet light switch which could also double as an alarm if the ignition is live.

No chance the wind would push it, no chance at all, the wind would have to be going at 500mph or something daft to force the bit of metal, i've seen plenty of production catches that work in the same way.
Probably the reason my catch failed is it was never finished properly, didn't have the support behind it so it was possible to bend it back too far, and also it's out of the wrong material, trying to source some spring steel to make one from now.

It's possible to get a catch with a built in switch, which would be the best thing to use, i've got one now, and it only works if it's latched properly, if its just an alarm type pin switch it would be tricky to get it aligned so that its perfect for sensing betwen a properly latched and slightly latched bonnet.

I'll soon have an under bonnet light too, but thats off a different switch.

Think mine was from a Peugeot of some kind - nice sturdy looking moulded GRP catch.

Learning from Eddy, I bought a bonnet catch with a built in switch. It was advertised as a Range Rover P38 bonnet catch latch sensor switch. I have since fitted it and it is fine. So switched bonnet catches should not be so difficult to find. I tried to find a place on the instrument display where I could etch a suitable pattern as a warning light. On the Rover display there are two blacked out positions but I made a pig's ear out of the job so I have given up and will resort to a logic circuit triggering a small warning buzzer. If anybody is interested in the electronics I would be delighted to swap ideas.