The problem with the 370z.com observations on the bumper vs. no bumper is that it leaves me thinking . . . so what? Okay, so you get more gain if there's no bumper cover. So freakin' what? Are we gonna drive around without our bumper covers on? Of course not. So it's an interesting piece of trivia, but completely irrelevant as far as practical application goes. Just my opinion.

That is an interesting observation. Their tests show that with the bumper on it produces less hp and torque up to 6700 where it starts to show a modest 3 hp gain. To me it is relevant to spend $500 and lose hp and torque. You are right about not being able to drive with the bumper off so the dyno tests need to be done with the bumper on or they are not valid.

Well, FWIW, my dyno results from this intake are completely different from their's. And to be honest, I think their entire methodology is less than ideal, because they didn't drive the car around for several days in between mods. This is significant, IMO, because as you probably already know, our cars adjust and learn new mods. That's one of the reasons for disconnecting the battery for each mod -- it resets the ECU and speeds up the learning process. Now, I don't want to say that 'they did it wrong' because maybe it was intentional. Like maybe they were intentionally trying to do a more clinical measurement of what these different parts do prior to ECU adjustment. If that was their intention, then what they did was perfect. But in my view, it's not real-world, because in the real world, we drive our cars and our cars adjust to the new parameters that come from new mods. Have you seen my results on this intake yet? Check out this thread if you haven't. http://www.the370z.com/intake-exhaus...eview-etc.html

I got a net gain of 14.7whp on a Dyno Dynamics dyno (at Forged Performance).

Note that the dyno can not truly reproduce real world conditions, and hence it may be discovered that although there is a negligible power increase from standstill, there may be a significant power increase at 60 mph due to the additional cold air being pushed in front of the radiator. A couple of fans blowing can not simulate this, at best they probably represent about 20 mph worth of air flow. The bumper off test may be more accurate than you realize.

One thing that I don't think that has been mentioned and as certainly worth keeping in mind is the cleaning of the air filter. The intakes certainly provide solid performance and Im sure those who have already installed them are glad for having done so, but how do you clean them? You'll have to remove the front bumper clip anytime you want to do so. I think that alone is gonna have me go with the shorter Stillen intakes, just for ease and regularity of cleaning the filters.....

Filters require cleaning at around the 50,000 mile mark at the soonest.. You're likely to need to clean once, maybe twice for the time you'll own the car. And as others have stated, once you've removed the front bumper once or twice, it's literally a 10 minute process. There's nothing scary about it.

Agreed. I really don't understand why people get so freaked out about it. Maybe I should make a video showing how easy it is.

But for starters:

http://i618.photobucket.com/albums/t...09-13406PM.jpg
http://i618.photobucket.com/albums/t...09-13638PM.jpg

only thing I"d even consider doing is having two cutots on the bumper right in front of the intakes(tastefully done of course)............kind of like mines white one or forgot which car has that that I saw.....looks OK'ish if you can get over the part of hacking your bumper...lol..

I'm not sure hacking holes in your bumper for air intakes can be done tastefully. Sounds like some spring-cutting type of a job to me.

I wouldn't want those cutouts directly over or in front of the filters though, because then there'd be a risk of hydrolocking in a bad rainstorm. What might actually work better (in terms of less risk and being more tasteful looking) is popping out those little black plastic pieces next to the fangs in the front fascia, and having some sort of ducting/tubing that routes air from those slots right up to the filters. It'd be subtle looking, and functional (hopefully).

I think this is pretty tasteful, and it is not directly in front of the filters, so no risk of hydrolocking.

http://www.370zblog.com/wp-content/u...-mines-105.jpg

I don't think I could do that to my Z. Doesn't look good to me.

I'm planning on doing it. If so, I'll dyno before and after.

That would definitely work for a black car :tup:

Hmmm, I wonder who would have a black 370Z in my area.... :)