Learn me, tow hooks

I love this forum but man does the search function bite. If this topic has been covered before shoot me a link and I'll be on my way.

Some friends and I are speedrunning a racecar. We bought it last friday and it needs to be finished on the 19th. We're smart.

One of the things we need are tow loops front and rear. If memory serves that's the extent of the rules but I will 100% check before commiting to anything. 

Because of the time crunch and the budget crunch I want to go with an off the shelf option that doesn't require any Fab. A bolt on solution.

Please hold your laughter til the end.

My thoughts are to grab a pair of the nylon loops and bolt them onto the bumper mounts. It's a unibody car so a bumper mount should be stong enough... right? Just remove a single bumper bolt and replace with a slightly longer grade 8 bolt and the tow loop.

Is this a viable plan?

would you put the loop on the drivers side or the passenger side? Do they need to be in the middle?

Are the strap kind worthless? Should I get a metal one that always sticks out?

the strap kind seem to range in price from $9 Sparcocos to like $100+ at what point does it stop being sketchy? At what point does it become your paying for a brand name?

Help me obi-wan canoli.

We did talk about them after Tom hit a cheap tow hook with a hammer. 

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/see-why-a-cheap-tow-hook-can-b/238342/page1/

I've got one of the straps on my car. I think it's an I/O Port. It has been used to put my three wheeled racecar on a trailer, IIRC. It might have been the front hook instead, I don't remember exactly. But the fabric ones can certainly be strong enough.

I've had a bad experience with loops. Had some acquaintances put loops on the car, bolted it through to the bumper mounts. As the rollback was tilted for unloading their broken car, the loop gave and sent the thing flying through the paddock, narrowly missing other cars, spectators, ect. The tension and point friction under load during the tow seemed to have worn and frayed enough of the nylon until this disaster happened. 

This is the text of the rule.

Tow Hooks are mandatory in the event you need a little track, pit lane or paddock assistance. All vehicles must be equipped with an easily accessible front and rear tow-hook (3-inch opening recommended to accommodate a tow strap), constructed of materials (chain or strap will work too) that is capable of pulling the weight of your vehicle that could be stuck in mud or worse, a catch fence. Keep in mind, if you are missing a tow hook or it is a subpar solution (please have a beefy solution), the safety crew’s priority is rescuing and protecting the driver, not your car. You could end up with a tow strap attached to a sub-optimal location on your racecar.

In reply to TR7 :

That sounds unlikely from a single tow. Were they old and well used, undersized? what brand?

I'm good with using one of the 'FIA' straps, but it's not actually the strap I'm worried about at that point. Looks like the straps from Sparco and Sabelt use a 15mm holes, while the OMP strap uses an 8mm hole. OMP (admittedly with the smaller bolt) notes that the bolt is the weak point, not the strap. The Pegasus site also notes this about all the tow straps:

Note: To acheive this level of strength, a double-shear mount is recommended. Use only high-quality hardware for mounting.

It would probably be wise to make a bracket or something that ties across multiple bumper mount bolts, to provide additional strength rather than just bolting direct to a single bumper mount bolt on some relatively thin sheet metal.

I can't help with the tow loop question, but I can help with the search issue. Go to Google, type in what you want to search followed by site:grassrootsmotorsports.com 

My employer makes safety equipment for Army helicopter crews.  I ended up with a couple of these and use them looped around the bumper struts.  Based on testing requirements, it should have no issues being used for a pull.