bigger ram air

Dec 26, 2007 3 Replies
M

I was wondering, would it do a car any good if the a bigger ram air is installed?



Going extremes, a giant cone attached to the air intake system of the engine and then mounted on the front of the car. With that giant cone, would the car still do good even at high speeds?



I was thinking that at slow speeds, it would be able to take in more air and pressurize it as the air reaches the smaller part of the cone BUT at high speeds, the air drag might just be worse than engine the power gains.... what do you think???


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D

One can calculate the boost pressure pretty easily- 1/2 density times square of speed. The pressure is pretty low until you get to high speeds, highway speeds at least. While this would help VE to some degree, it is not worth it unless you are running for a lot of money and every quarter second ET or per lap counts. And size only needs to be only a bit larger than the intake area of carb or throttle body.

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M

Yes I know that boost will be low until the car reaches high speeds and that's why I was thinking of making the cone/funnel/scoop larger to be able to "catch" more air and pressurize it...even at low speeds.

My question is, would the air drag caused by a bigger ram air be worse than the power gains to the engine?

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D

Probably, but the drag will depend on the total drag of the vehicle. What is it, a dragster, funny car, pro-stock? You need to get wind tunnel time to make sure.

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