E46 ram air mod

[ANT MAN]

When I bought one of Teddy's gruppeM reps, I was a little dissappointed to find that I didn't have the air feed a la M3 to make full use of it.

So I had a look at Matt's at the first SM meet and thought it should fit my car. With the facelift models the back of the xenons are shaped differently and there's less space.

Here's the item, bought from Sytner for £13. Notice the annoying bit that sticks out.
http://xs36.xs.to/pics/05273/carsandstuff070.jpg

Making a cardboard template.......it's not Blue Peter ;)
http://xs36.xs.to/pics/05273/carsandstuff071.jpg

I marked round the cut-out with a tyre pencil (very tricky as so little room) and then drilled holes. I then used a bremmel to grind away the rest. It took a long time to get right, especially the sticking out bit.
http://xs36.xs.to/pics/05273/carsandstuff073.jpg

Fitted articled looks similar to this. It's all cleaned up now and the front has been ground down to be much lower than the back to increase the air flow to the filter.
http://xs36.xs.to/pics/05273/carsandstuff079.jpg


Very pleased with the mod. I think I may be the first to do this :D

[peppernick]

Great mod [ok

Unless you are really pushing the brakes, I would just leave the brake duct cover on. This way you get more air into the air duct.

[Tin]

cool.. looking good dude.. moddin is a lovely disease [jam

[speed]

I've been considering doing something like this for a while now. Read somewhere that the ram air thing only works at speeds over 150mph. Is it worth doing this mod as i'm still pretty tempted but only if it will actually have an effect on the performance.

[ANT MAN]

150mph, that's a bit high. Put your arm out of the car's window at 30mph and 50. Ram air really starts benefiting at 50mph (if F1 designers are to be believed). Put out a plastic bag at these speed to see how quickly it fills up. :)

Back in the 1989 (first non-turbo year) Ferrari ran without ram air , the air box on F1 cars was said to give 20% more bhp, they soon modfied their car!

[ANT MAN]

Great mod [ok

Unless you are really pushing the brakes, I would just leave the brake duct cover on. This way you get more air into the air duct.

I put the fog light and cover back on after taking the pic. I don't have a brake duct cover though.

[lee330sport]

I think the gains will be nothing or very very little. The duct should be facing oncoming air flow. Are you not better using some ribbed flexi hose?

Speeds right, at 150mph you would be gaining not even 0.5psi over atmospheric pressure. So the ain is very minimal at lower speeds.

The only gains you are likely to see from a ram type airbox is cooler air as its replenished quickly, as opposed to a sealed box. And even this would only be from a very well designed box such as the GruppeM.