We haven't fitted a JCW bar with our intake. But i have fit and seen fit some of the round style bars, both of which need some trimming done to get it to clear. But this brings up something we have been thinking about doing with future boxes. We will be adding some very small laser cut slots to allow people to remove the "pieces" easily.

But this will also not let the box be completely sealed. Other intakes with tops that do clear the strut bars, are comprimising the amount of room for a filter to breathe. So with the Alta top installed it really won't clear.

For those who do purcahse our intake and cut the box for strut bar, let us know how much you cut out, and for which bar.

 

I'm crossing my fingers that I don't have to cut it for the M7 bar.

 

Let me know if it fits for you. I have the M7 bar as well and am patiently waiting for someone to report back on if this fits

 

--Alta2 will the intake + box top cover fit an M7 strut tower brace? I have an M7 on order and was not considering the Alta because of its aesthetic-non-appeal. But this new piece of bling bling has me really interested. Please let us know.

--Has anyone in NAM installed an M7 strut tower brace? Please post pics or links to pics. Thanks everyone.

~pyratio

 

This is what I figure. I have the alta (no top) in my MCS now. The M7 bar puts pressure on the rubber stripping and pushes the rubber down. But at the same time not interfering the intake. Does that make sense? So, depending on how thick the cover is, it should fit under the M7 bar.

ALTA2-- If you send me a black cover I can test fit it under the M7 bar and take pictures for you

 

Yea, Yea! I could test and take pictures for you, too, Alta!!

 

I concur the same. I have trimmed the rubber on the Intake to allow the bar to sit better. I think if the top is very thin that it will fit. But it might fit snuggly.

Alta I will test fit for you as well. I am also waiting on my MCSa intake hose

 

Yea, I'll test too

Oh! And I need an M7 bar as well. Just throw that in will ya.

 

obehave,

 

$49.99 is the retail price, which puts the street price right where people were shooting for. We are going to offer the same great deal to everyone, since everyone that is interested in the top already has the ALTA intake!

So with that said, colors are being made right now, and in 3 weeks or so you will see parts!

As for will it fit with certain strut bars. In a quest to make our parts more universal, i would love to know some of the dimensions of the bars in comparison to our boxes. But also if the M7 bar fits ok with our current intake, i think it will be ok with the top, but it might touch some. We have a few of the SS tops that i could send out for test fit only if you are interested in how it would clear them??

pyratio,
PLease don't take this the wrong way, but why isn't our intake applealing?(the way it is) Is is the filter, or the siliver box?? I am only asking because we take peoples comments very seriously when it comes to how things look. In a perfect world we want to please everyone, and if you don't like this or that, maybe we should change it??

If the top makes it that much better, great! That is one of the reasons for building them. PLease give us some feed back.

 

Okay...if you won't make a Chilli Red top, how about at least offering to highlight the ALTA logo in red? That would look good no matter what color the top, plus, it would highlight your brand!

I'll go ahead and speak for everyone on this...only because I think they'd all agree .....How about offering us that GROUP BUY, you may get people buying who normally wouldn't!!?!?!?!?!!

Finally, someone asked already, but I didn't see a response, so...have you all run the numbers on this? What is the difference between an existing setup and the existing setup with the top?

Thanks!

 

ALTA2, another question for you...what about the hood seal? After looking at the pic on the first page of this thread, I started to wonder about the hood seal...you know, the one we had to cut in order for the box to fit? Looks like this new top will allow the original hood seal to be left unaltered...is that accurate?

I know some people managed to keep their factory seal in place w/o cutting it out after installing the ALTA CAI, but I cut mine to allow for the clean install - now I'm wondering...

 

I like the price!! Good Job, Alta!!!!!

 

--Hey there Alta2, no worries I'd love to give you my input. The fact that you're taking the time to ask has won major points in my opinion of Alta the brand. Please keep in mind though that I'm the type of guy who likes a lot of chrome and colorful bits in the engine bay to show that I've done some work on the car. I've also got a black MINI so the engine bay is kinda dark to begin with.

Let's have a look at the old setup shall we?



First off the red cone filter and optional blue and or red silicone tubes are awesome! As for the rest of the intake... Well... it's just kind of dull. Very functional and efficient at locking down all the loose odds and ends which used to be held up by the OEM box, but it's just kinda dull. Add onto that the rubber hood seal and you don't even notice that there is a metallic box under the cone intake. It all kinda just blends in to one dark stealth unit that if not for the colorful cone filter would look almost OEM to the untrained eye.

Now let's have a look at the competition:



Now the BMP/Promini doesn't provide nearly the performance and efficiency of the Alta intake but it does do 2 things very well. 1.) It lays down low enough to avoid impacting any of the strut tower braces people have been known to install. 2.) It dresses up the engine nicely with some really nicely machined chrome bits. Just that one half pipe of chrome is enough to draw people's eyes to the only super shiny part of the engine and ask, "what's that?"

Now don't go Microsoft on us and sacrifice engineering performance for a little extra bling bling. Everybody loves the sound and the performance of the Alta intake. If you could make it so the intake box is unobtrusive to any strut tower braces with the same performance then it would win over even more customers to the Alta camp.

While we're on the suggestions I was wondering if Alta has experimented with the stainless steel mesh cone filters like the ones blitz uses?

http://www.blitz-performance.com/Blitz_Intake_Sus.htm

This filter seems to be pretty popular with the AWD/Subaru WRX tuners and I was wondering if these filters might make the Alta intake an even better product? Just a suggestion thanks for the listen.

Oh yeah and I second the idea of a group buy from this thread. I'll even beta test products if you want.

~pyratio

 

See, my "Issues" with the appearance of the Alta intake are at the other end of the spectrum. I prefer the "OEM" look. I like opening the bonnet and not being immediately drawn to any aftermarket parts. The last thing I want is someone asking "What's that?" I'd much prefer it to look as close to std as possible... just not PERFORM like standard

If the Alta kit (with top) looks good in black AND clears the JCW strut bar (with no more than minor modification) then I think it'd blend nicely with the rest of the engine bay AND give a nice boost to performance

Just my 2¢

 

It appears the Alta log it tacked on.
A nice option might be a black top with the logo in brushed stainless tacked on.
Or ship the logo separate so people can paint it any color they want and attach it themselves.

 

I'd be interested in a black cover...

I also agree with pyratio's quest for bling... All different types of aesthetic goals to meet, and quite a few people like shiny bling in the engine... Some like red, or blue, and some like myself like it to look as OEM as possible, while 'hinting' that there's more hidden there.

Maybe a chromed box/shield is in order, with a chromed lid.

I wouldn't order it, but I know there's plenty here on NAM that probably would.

 

another option could be either a carbon fiber lid. Obviously this will be quite a bit more expensive, but a big panel of carbon fiber could really dress a few things up.

I'm not sure what metal you use for it (well, the SS is obvious) but for the silver and black is it also stainless? If so, perhaps a blue powdercoating and red powder coating would look great if they match the silicone hoses.

I can almost guarantee that I'll be buying one of your intakes this summer... along with the intercooler diverter and both with the blue silicone hoses. I'm not sure if I'd go with stainless or silver because it will match the diverter. Chances are that I may just paint the cover and IC diverter hyper blue or have them powder coated to match the silicone blue color. However, if the cover was available in powder coated blue I'd be all over it.

hell, for now my plan is to get it in the most powdercoat-friendly material, and have the IC diverter and CAI cover powdercoated blue and the ALTA logos topped with white. damn... every time I turn around I've got more stuff on my modding list!

 

KC MCS,
Most likely we won't do a chilli red. If we made it in red, we would have to make it in all the other colors. And there is a lot of colors!

You asked about performance. Well seriously, there is no way that this is going to make a difference on the dyno. But on the street, or on a race car, since the intake is competely sealed from the engine bay, it should make more power, but how much? The current intake only has a small corner exposed to the small amount of heat getting into the air box. So the change in intake temp isn't going to be much. Like we said previously, the power isn't the main reason for building the part.

The seal is included with the part. But you are right, if you are going from OEM intake to the ALTA with top, you can use the stock seal.

PYRATIO,
Thanks for the input! As seen by other NAM members, everyone has there own taste. So on one hand we have the guy who like the bling, and then the guy who likes it stealth. Maybe we just make black and siliver. Curretnly all the intakes are siliver, which from what people have told us, everyone is ok with. But black wouldn't be hard to do. Maybe we make both??

For the filter. Actually the SS filters really don't filter much better than a K&N. And they also suffer from the "more dirt less flow". This is why we use the foam. Its suffers from the "more dirt same flow". Foam has lots of benifits.

Drillslinger,
Do you have the ALTA intake? And the JCW bar?

obehave,
The logo is a tuff one. We want our logo on the part, so people know whos it is. But we understand that no everyone like big popping logos. So that is why you have seen the spot welded logo on the side and powdercoated over. Not to showy, but enough for recognition. So i think with the top it will be the same. If not we have been using some new badges that could be removable by the end user.

theroyalwe,
CF is a very good material. Some bling some stealth, but lots of money! You never know!

 

What if the new top required some drilling? How would that make people feel? 4 small holes, not tacky, somewhat hidden? This would be inplace of the press on type lid.

Not wanting to give too much away, so sorry if that is a vague question.

 

Press lid sounds good if it works as advertised.|Q

 

Works for me!!

4 small hole-Easy!

 

Thanks for the answers. Definitely undstand the logo and have no issues with it.
It was more so people could customize the taste easier. And not bug you with 1,000 options

 

I prefer no hles. Then again if it fits under theM7 Bar it's not going anywhere.

 

--What would the holes be for? Got a diagram or picture? Please draw me a picture. It's the weekend and my brain has downshifted.

Thanks for listening to us for your product. You guys rock!

~pyratio