Quote:
Originally Posted by Wrecky_Flowers_
I think you can both have nice parts like this, and also take them to the track and use them. I don't know how this particular community is in that regard, but having an S2000 track car put together with really nice parts is not an especially uncommon thing. Some people have deeper pockets and like having nice stuff that is going to be worth decent money when they part the car out and move on to something else. This is no different to buying a set of Volks to use as track wheels when Konigs or Enkeis would have worked about as well. You could go even further and say this is more functional than the stick-on BS OEM STi "aero" that some people tack onto their cars - I don't hear anyone complaining about that.
As you are suggesting, the OEM intake in this car is very well designed. Subaru's engineers put a lot of thought into designing the intake so that it performed well at all RPMs and didn't cause a significant power restriction. Having said this, there are other factors at play - the intake is designed to make power, but ALSO to not make noise (bummer!), to mitigate the risk of water or foreign material intrusion into the engine as much as possible (so people can drive them through puddles and not pop their engines), reduce heat soak, comply with the emissions goals of the engine, etc. That means it is an inherently compromised design if your goal is to make as much power as possible, which was not Subaru's ultimate goal here. Again, the S2000 is subject to the same logic - well designed intake that works great, but you give up ultimate performance for something that is designed to work in every street car Honda sold, in all situations. A properly-designed aftermarket intake (those cars are very picky in this regard) would yield power gains, but at the expense of the other factors the OEM was working with (noise/emissions/reliability/etc). Another thing to consider is that the OEM intakes on both cars are designed and mass-manufactured to a cost and to be easily serviceable, as opposed to some aftermarket intakes that take up every little bit of room available in the name of performance while making it more of a pain to install and service (replace filters, clean, etc).
The Golf (and any turbocharged performance car in general) is not an apples to apples comparison here because it is totally different in terms of design, and was engineered to work and perform totally differently than the motor in this car. That motor was designed with turbocharging in mind, and thus doesn't benefit very much from an intake (unless you're tuned and seeking to squeeze out maximum performance and response from the motor and turbo). Intakes on those cars largely help with response and add some noise, but are not where you go if you're trying to make power. As the owner of a Mk7, I am speaking purely from experience here, not what I've read on the internet.
Guys, my goal here isn't to convince you all that spending two racks on an intake is a good idea. I am simply trying to have a discussion about the potential of this intake to make power under the appropriate circumstances. No intake for any 4 cylinder N/A car is going to make a noticeable amount of horsepower without a tune, however on the last car and other similar cars they usually pick up power when tuned compared to the OEM intake also with a tune. In the real world, I don't think there are any intakes that would yield a very noticeable improvement in power over stock without a tune, but if you're tuned and switching to a good aftermarket intake you're going to notice the extra WHP and torque. Saying something is useless or worthless with no evidence to support your claim other than purely anecdotal evidence is kind of silly in my opinion. At present, there is no data on the FA24 that shows how well it responds to a properly-designed aftermarket intake as there is still no tuning solution. I am positive that we will start to see some pretty encouraging results from these motors with bolt-ons added to the mix once there is a way to tune them.
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Our point is that although there most certainly are cars that will benefit from an improved CAI these are not one of them. They come with a very effective CAI already. Adding length and complexity to a simple yet effective design does not make it "better" in any way shape or form with or without a tune. The other point that several of us have tried to make is that calling this thing a "ram air" system is just ludicrous. It is in now way going to provide ram air boost at any speed that these cars will ever be driven at.
You argue that we have " no evidence to support your claim other than purely anecdotal evidence" yet you are doing exactly the same thing to try and support you viewpoint.
Even the TRD intake for the first gen was proven to have no real benefit other than pure bling and that was developed directly by Toyota.
Just pop a higher flow filter in, tune (when you can) for that higher flow and call it a day.
No doubt many will buy this and adamantly state that they can immediately "feel" the improvement in performance but butt dyno measurements are notoriously inaccurate.