Over the past few cars, I have gotten very used to bolting on aftermarket exhausts, cold air intakes, pulleys, and other mods. I enjoy the intake and the exhaust most of all, because (in addition to a slight bump in power) doing both together really creates a wonderful sound. Exhaust alone lends a car a deep, mellow sound, but it's the CAI or SRI swap that always gave my engines their aggressive sound under acceleration. For reasons of sound and character, I really wish it was possible to do the same on the Crossfire. There is a Borla out there for the car, which I am sure would sound nice. However, there is no intake (aside from Sean Askin's much derided piece).

Looking around at various Mercedes tuner websites, I found a Fujita intake for a ML320. However, most of the serious tuners out there (Brabus, Startech, etc) do not offer an intake. But, you can get such expensive-to-develop pieces as cams, and even kits that allow you to bump displacement from 3.2 to 3.8L. In addition, remapped ECU's are available (but aren't cheap). From this, I conclude that a CAI or SRI was somehow seen of marginal value by these big name tuners. After all, it is rather simple to make an intake (compared to say, a set of cams). If it was worth it, they would have done it.

What do you think?

 

For the N/A 3.2 liter...I totally agree with your above conclusions...

 

Just by looking at the stock intake I'd say there's not a whole lot that could be changed. It seems pretty well thought out -- pulls in cold air from the front, with nice straight shot to the filters and throttle body. Aside from maybe putting in a set of K&N re-useable filter elements I would leave it alone.