Starting my engine hatch build weekend after this and it crossed my mind that I have an open design question.

I will have an electric lift in center but is that ALL that holds it down? Planning (hoping) to go 80 with two big hood scoops so there will be a lot of lift pressure. Do your hatches have any kind o safety locking mechanism?

Some do some don't, none of mine have latches. The Donzi has two lifts, one on each side. The Scarab has one big one in the middle. Just make sure it is very well mounted and it's not a bad idea to have an alternate means to get in. My Scarab has an access hole and cover by the mount under the pad incase the ram conks out and the topmount is pinned but if either ram goes bad on the Donzi gonna haft cut something.

Thanks for the access suggestion. A good one!

Also interested in lift ram angles. It would lift easy if connected to firewall bu in the way. Could mount near front of engines too. That's what I'm thinking now.

I dont think theres any set rules other then being aware of weight limit of the ram and not overloading it with any extreme angles or odd locations. I would do some test measurements though to allow the hatch to max out when raised. On my Scarab when i re did the stringers i changed the location of the rams lower mount and didnt pay attention to where it was originally, when i first ran it up i only had about two feet of access lol. Measure the ram fully extended and fully retracted and go from there.