Hi all,

I got a 2010 JCW several months ago, and while a great car stock, I want to push it further.

The first stage is going to be heavy suspension work, but there's already plenty of comparison threads on roll bars/coilovers/etc. Every thread I've found about intakes is usually either with someone who's already installed one, or someone asking "which mods should I do" and being told unequivocally not to do an intake mod.

That said, I want to make sure that the limiting factor in engine intake air is at the turbo and not at the intake. FMIC is easy to pick, DP's easy, and exhaust is as well. However, I can't find a thread where anyone compares the performance (post-tune) of intakes.

Does the stock JCW Airbox really have enough intake surface area to feed a high boost level? I really find that hard to believe looking at the thing. If so, great, done. However, I doubt that's the case, leaving me with many pretty darn different intake options ranging from $200 to $650.

"Ram"-style intakes seem over the top, because as many have pointed out before the engine/turbo can only suck in so much air. I want to make sure that the bottleneck in the system is not the intake. So... There's the massive AGS from m7, the DoS CAI, NM intake, etc. The AGS looks to have by far the greatest surface area (pretty much guaranteeing it won't bottleneck) - but maybe it's too large and it would make more sense to tradeoff some surface area for colder air (DoS...?).

I know there are people out there with aggressive tunes that have been through several intakes, as well as tuners that can comment on which intakes they can "get the most out of" (hard to isolate the intake for this, granted). So... what's best?

I'd also be interested to hear if people feel that upgrading the stock charge/ discharge pipe actually open up the system more or not.

(sidenote: I'm not planning to upgrade engine internals or the turbo itself in this stage)

 

IMO to much surface area is better than not enough. I was looking at the M7 AGS for that very reason. Ended up getting a steal on the AGS-R. I like the fact that it feed air from outside and not from inside the engine compartment. Definitely noticed the difference after install. Changed out the turbo to IC tube and the IC to Throttle body tubes later with the FMIC. Again there was a noticeable difference. I think when you can delete all the factory crap for quieting the motor noise and straighten out the flow you're better off.

 

What intake you run on your car at the track is the last thing you should be worried about. Good tires and brakes and what you need to be the most worried about now if not mentioning driving experience. The last thing to worry about is power and spending $8K+ on the powertrain for a big build. Ask any MINI track junkie and this is what you'll hear.

However, I wouldn't be surprised if 50+ people turned this into an epic shootout between a part that gives you 5whp at 5500rpm and above :-\
_

 

The car already has a cold air intake. The is a tube from the airbox to the front grill.

 

The first big upgrade I plan to do is brakes. I find the brakes to be medicore imo zipping around on the street. I can only imagine WOT in between several turns melting stock hardware.

Edit: by the way I picked up the DDMworks race intake. I like it so far.

 

Don't worry about the intake right now, get the suspension and brakes first.

 

If you really want an intake il sell you my K&N Typhoon system, it sounds cool. But i found that my stock s intake with a k&n drop in filter seams to work great on the track

 

I guess I should have called out more explicitly - the first round of modifications I have done/am doing is suspension work (incl coilover/various chassis reinforcements/various bushings) and I've already done wheels/tires . Brakes are JCW and are getting pad and/or rotor upgrades. I don't want to bother going into specifics because it doesn't motivate this discussion - but yes, I fully understand the importance of handling over power - I've gone through Skip Barber racing school and have a bit of auto crossing under my belt already. GIVEN that handling work is already fully in progress and I'm simply looking into the start of power modifications, is an intake a useless investment?

5hp/500 is silly. That said, I'm loosely targetting the 250/280 range and so 5hp here and 5hp there adds up.

 

If I remember correctly, I read that Jan(RMW) mentioned the JCW intake repeatedly gave some of the highest dyno numbers. Personally I went with the AGS-R for the bling(although some users supposedly report that the AGS-R causes a CEL as the airflow was too high(?) In fact one of the vendors here stopped carrying the AGS-R because of the CEL issues)

I'm regurgitating all of the above via memory of read posts sometime or another so I could be way off :/ I've had no CEL and will be getting Jan to tune once the meth kit is.