Originally Posted by maxcichon
Well, after reading this last, very well thought-out post-I must agree. To a point. Extending the intake tubes to a plane even with the grill face (or even farther) would be beneficial in that you have optimized the location for drawing the coolest air available. But you could actually do this anywhere hot air, escaping the engine compartment couldn't reach.
Under the headlight assemblies, for instance. Don't roll your eyes at me! Most contemporary really high-HP and CID muscle cars do not use forward-facing scoops. The have an insulated airbox inside the engine compartment with a high-flow tube routed either to the grill area (no straight line-of-sight here!) or into a body cavity (!) with no hot air.
Of course, if the car is actually
moving forward I have a hard time seeing this as an issue. Any visible scoops on newer cars is only to provide a source of unobstructed and cool air.
And it might look cool too. A styling cue.
But back to your point, J, the concept of the devil horns is valid, IMHO, only as an extention tube. Not as a funnel, scoop or ram.
And then there is the price. I'm not a skinflint, but YIKES!
But it's only the opinion of a physics nerd.
Good points.
And I agree, it's not dirt-cheap, per se... but it's cheaper than the R&D I would have to employ to find cooler areas. I'd be out the materials, bloody knuckles, time, and possible hacked-up areas underhood. And to me, even an
insulated "box" would still be a bit warmer than a direct shot to cool air. We all know how great of a job our hoods do at venting the warm air our of the engine bay...
And yes, scoops look amazing too. Fake ***** don't perform work any better than real ones, but they sure do beat the gravitationally-challenged alternative.
And they cost $8,000, yet many marriages justify them. Hehe