It doesn't necessarily need to compress all the way to the engine. Since the engine brings in air via vacuum, it can theoretically be better just by lowering the vacuum the engine needs to suck in. But I guess we'll need numbers to really know which is basically unobtainable since a dyno won't work for it so we've hit a wall in information.

Yep, it was a track day set up on a local s2k forum so there were five s2ks including my bro and I.

 

Yeah, pretty much it's all theory. Technically, you could use a MAF reading to test (assuming the test car would even have a MAF), but there's too many variables involved (temperature, relative humidity, heat soak, engine temperature, etc) for the test to be accurate. I don't see how it would hurt on a track car, but there's no way I would do it on a street car. Also, the OP was talking about cutting a hole in his hood, and I'd assume a scoop would be involved; that's a lot less efficient than the front-mount velocity stacks you posted as far as gathering air.

 

Oh yeah, a hood scoop seems pointless to me too lol

 

So basically i'm looking for a daily driver that's a little different from the rest. I'm not looking to make gobs of power, i'm not gonna throw a turbo at it i'm eventually gonna trade it in on something new. I was a former hater because i've been known to make fun of dudes in civics while driving in my imp. I respect clean installs and nice work i just like to bug the kids in the fart cans. As for the ram air... I'm not afraid to chop a hole in the hood and make one small bend, i'm sure i wouldn't lose much velocity at all, especially if i used an inline filter. As for esthetically pleasing intake tube. Nawwwwww. besides i don't wanna move the battery. I know the ram wouldn't add a bunch of power maybe none. But i do know that the more effeciently you move air the more effeciently one's engine runs.

 

Oh and to finish the story about how I got the civ. I put a stereo in my friends Frieghtliner. I had a nice little boxed sub and amp I put it under the bed of his sleeper cab. aaaaaanywho, he wanted to pay me for something i had sitting around not using. He was gonna put the suburban into auction anyway so he tossed me the keys and said, here, call it square? Well i don't look a 350 v-8 gift horse in the mouth. We did some family car swapping, I signed the Burb over to my brother who'se gonna trade it in on the cash for clunkers deal, so My pops signed the civic over to me. Her name is "Kitten"