What is the only thing more aphrodisiac than an italian sports car?

An Italian sports car with a functioning hood scoop!

Everyone knows that as a gas gets hotter, its density will decrease. Horsepower is made by more air, so more dense air makes more horsepower... so one wants as cold of air as possible entering the engine for max horsepower. Well, this thought was right at the front of my brain where it ususally is and it ocurred to me that the air going into my engine is coming from right next to the hot engine and behind the radiator. Not the ideal place to get cold air.

So I ran some tests using an out door/in door thermometer. The top number is the temp on top of the hood the number in the middle is the air that is right in front of the engine air intake. These numbers are in Celsius of course. I found that depending on where I put the temperature probe and what speed I was driving I was getting between 20 and 30 deg C hotter intake temp than ambient air temp. The lowest temperature difference I found was on the highway at around 70 mph, but even that was 18 deg C.


An example of one of the places I placed the temperature probe.


So what did I do with all this data?

Apply some math... and a little science...


Realize that my partial differentiation skills are super rusty... so consult some trusty buddies from my scientist days. I know you can't judge a book by its cover, but in these cases you can. Especially the one on the right.


What all that shit said was that I will probably gain about 7% -10% horsepower just by useing the ambient air instead of the hot air from inside the engine compartment.


Step one: Isolate the air intake from the engine compartment. I did this by building a styrofoam and galvanized steel box around the intake air cleaners.


I forgot to take a picture of step two...


Step three: Profits!


I don't have any hard numbers for increased horsepower... but I do know that the butt dynometer says "Holy Fuck!" This actually made a huge difference. I am actually really interested in my 0 - 60 times now. The improvement is very noticeable.



Not to mention the looks you get from the hotties on the corner at the light when they realize that you have a functioning hood scoop and cold air intake!