Interesting forum. Now my questoin is, do I: Try to buy an aem cai for my car or buy a 20 dollar ebay cai for the pipe, a K&N filter and turn mine into an icebox? Hmmm....
And import guy, you are pretty off on some of your comments/suggestions.
Think about what you just said,that makes no sense. If your going by what it says on the box,first off you shouldnt believe everything they tell you,secondly,it doesnt flow better,it filters better...and the more it filters,the less it flows.
Don't believe what they say on the box? thats like saying dont expect trix just because you bought a cereal box with the trix label on it? Secondly, the stock intake setup is very restrictive, switching the fliter alone allows for better airflow while still filtering the car optimally. Also, you would turn down a 2-3 horsepower gain(at least) from building an icebox for like 40 bucks? Heh... what is that... 13 dollars per hp as a minimal gain horsepower? And a whole turbo kit add roughly anywhere from 40-80hp for the cost of just about a grand... which is... 25-12.5 dollars per hp, and I'll tell you, you need some damn good work to get 80 ponies out of a turbo, over 1g. So the gains from the intake are easier, and cheaper. I'll take it!
Another example, header, decently small gains for a few hundred bucks, and none of your other modificatoins will work as well as they would with a better flowing system! Just my .02