The '00 R hood is functional. If you'll notice in the picture above, it's got small vents cut into the center of it to vent heat from the engine compartment. Cowls are great and ram all kinds of air into the engine compartment.....unfortunatley, the ram everything else into it as well. (dirt, water, leaves)
I personally like the look of the Solid Cobra "R" hood based off of the '95 model. It may not extract any heat, but it looks damn cool and it keeps everything under it clean and dry.