Originally Posted by
JHM2K
I've seen your car both here and on the Facebook group... looks amazing! And a big thumbs-up to the Esprit
Cost, cooling, and simplicity. I'm sure you're aware of the member
grip grip on here. He lives close to me, and with the very simple combination of NW Single, 181 pulley, a tune, and drag radials -- he was in the 11's. When I bought my car, it had a NW single, a Eurocharged 65mm s/c pulley, and a tune. I ran 12.3 @ 113 on street tires, and after "upgrading" to the 61mm pulley, NW Dual CAI, and downpipes -- I ran 12.4 @ 116
The car "felt" strong, but the small s/c pulley created too much slip. Then I had issues getting fuel to behave. The added torque made the car harder to launch. That was right around the time I sold the car.
If you have the single, just stick with it and apply the $$$ difference to getting the valve covers coated (if you're after aesthetics) or towards the "tweaked" manis (if you want more HP). The NW Dual looks badass, but I was just as happy with the single and the X-Stream.
Thanks man! I've still got a long ways to go before i'm really happy with it though. I had string of back luck throughout 2014 and i'm still picking up the pieces from that whole mess. The Esprit is still a pipe dream at the moment. I want to finish what I started (no Kylo-Ren pun intended) with the Crossfire and buy a house before I take that dive. I am shooting for 2-3 years before i'm in a position where I can seriously consider buying one. I could easily afford a 4th gen right now, but I really yearn for a 5th gen. Unfortunately they're still pretty damn pricey at the moment.
Regarding your feedback on the single vs. dual CAI....makes sense. Sometimes less is more. My car had the NW single CAI on it when I bought the car. I later did the Xstream filter upgrade just for kicks. As for the manifolds, as I mentioned before i'm not really a power junkie. This is undoubtedly the fastest car I have ever owned as it sits (refer to my signature for what all is done to my car). With that being said, I do want to improve the aesthetics of my engine bay a bit. I purchased everything I need to paint my valve covers & intake manifolds myself. VHT engine primer, VHT high-temp silver engine paint, VHT high-temp clearcoat and of course lots and lots of brake cleaner....lol. But with the weather having gotten cold i'm waiting for a warmer series of days before I try to tackle this job. I chose to go with silver because it's simple, clean and will match the silver finish of my NW intake. I'm planning to paint my NW oil catch can with the VHT paint before installing it as well.