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Originally Posted by Adam
I'm not down on everything aftermarket....but Porsche spends millions of dollars each year on R&D and I think they put out a pretty good product right out of the "box." I used to be like you and Silver Bullet and think that I could get more hp with this and that and make the car better but after spending years sifting through info on this board and others I have changed my mind. Alot of people open pandoras box when they try to make the car faster/better. About the stock intake sound...it sounds louder to me than most cars, even alot of with aftermarket intakes. I attribute alot of that to the the placement of the intake right behind the drivers left which is has a particulary nice sound especially with top down. Maybe the S has a louder intake than a base....I'm not sure.
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Unfotunately, everything your saying however is sort of true, but there's a problem. Let me explain...
When Porsche designs the intake, it has a few criteria it must meet. It needs to fit easily in to the engine bay for working on it during warranty period. It must meet the local areas decible limit for noise and it also needs to last for an extremly long period of time.
When you make a product that needs to last really long, meet sound guidelines and fit easily in the bay you end up with a stock intake such as what is on your car now. It's good and meets Porsche's needs.
Now, you take all that away, and make one only to make the most HP possible, forget about ease of fittiment, warranty or sound limits. You can make more HP with a system that is designed for only one thing. The stock air box draws air from the inlet at the side of the car, and so will an aftermarket intake. It will sit with an open filter in the bay, but that intake will fow more CFM than the stock air box will, so even with hotter air on average the fact that your pulling more air overall is where the power is made.
You have to remember on a dyno there is no air flow so measuring the power form an intake it harder on any car. I have dynoed intakes before on Honda/Acura cars for a company I do work with. The dyno would read say 8hp increase on a Type-R with an intake vs. the factory air box. They are a really well designed box but still limited by a few factors such as noise. When you take that away, you make power period.
Now with the car moving, cold air is being shoved into all kinds of nifty little places like under the hood, and through our side vent for the intake. There is not much worry about it getting the cold air needed to make more power. It's there simply from the force of the car moving through the air.
On my GTI VR6, simply removing the air box and fitting a cone filter under the hood even though it's hot under the hood air made 8whp and took the car stock from a 14.7 1/4 mile to a 14.4 in the same afternoon (fitted at the track in 10 mins) and it's drawing all hot air under the hood, (dyno test was a month later on I switched it at the dyno while seting up my nitrous kit). I took out the headlight and went 14.3 that day from the cold air going in. So yeah the cold air made more power than the hot air but the filter alone made more power than the stock air box did.