Intake Review

Maybe I'm just a cheapskate, but I'm one of those people who has always resisted paying $400 for what I consider to be the marginal improvements in breathing offered by a cold air intake. Let's face it, there's only so much you can do with a normally-aspirated 1.6 or 1.8-liter inline four-banger to make it go faster. If such an engine is attached to a well-designed car, the intake and exhaust tracts have already been designed to optimize intake air velocity and the scavenging of exhaust gases for maximum performance. And the Miata is, to be sure, a well-designed car. Anything done in the aftermarket short of forced induction is doomed to having a marginal effect at best on overall get up and go. Sometimes you can add products that you think are going to enhance your engine's performance and actually go the other way and lose a few horsepower÷the Miata design as originally sold is that good! But while the Miata is a magical machine, there's considerably more magic in the suspension than there is in that little engine's ability to produce power and torque. When it comes to those aspects of performance, there's still no low-buck substitute for cubic inches. That's why it took me years of pondering before I bothered to mess with the VoodooWagen's intake at all. I just couldn't bring myself to part with 400 bucks for what I knew was going to be a marginal improvement in badly needed midrange torque that I might not even feel with my backside. Then, suddenly, Racing Beat came along several years ago with their Power Pulse intake. Ah-hah!, says I, now I can try the cold air intake concept for little more than half of 400 bucks! So I bought one.

After running the Power Pulse for a while, frankly, I liked it just fine. There were a few things about it that were less than perfect, but it was still a better intake than the stock unit at a reasonable price. The acceleration felt a bit better through my pants, the product looked good under my hood, and it was CARB certified, which to me is very important. I donât get very excited by the prospect of tearing the car apart every two years to have it smogged. I ran the Power Pulse for several months prior to and during my trip to Texas, where it even survived off-roading admirably. While in the Lone Star state at Miata World â99, I ran into Jim Langer, Racing Beatâs Marketing Manager, and got to talking to him about the Power Pulse and my impressions of it. In the interest of comparison testing, and because I had always wanted to try their less expensive horseshoe-shaped High Flow Air Inlet, Jim offered me a price on the High Flow unit (which is also CARB certified) that was hard to pass up, and I took one home in the trunk for later installation.

Once back in San Diego, I installed the High Flow intake and took the car for a ride. Right away I was favorably impressed. Not only did it seem to create a stronger, more instantaneous engine response to the gas pedal than either the stock or Power Pulse intakes had done, it made this viscerally satisfying "roar" above 4500 RPM at full throttle·very cool, whether I was accelerating more quickly or not. The Power Pulse had also created an added sensation above 5,000 RPM, but it could be better described as a power-driven vibration, not a roar. Nice, but not as nice as a roar. Now that Iâve been running the High Flow for almost a year, I still stick my foot in it more often than needed just to hear that sound. It is entirely too cool. But beyond that very satisfying sound is the simple fact that my backside tells me that there is just plain better midrange torque with this unit on my car than there was with prior intakes. It is admittedly hard to tell from the seat of your pants just how much improvement you might have gotten from a given Miata intake. In combination with my JR header, high flow catalytic converter, and Borla exhaust the difference from stock is clearly noticeable. But just how much of that can be attributed to this intake or that? The car has been faster than stock with both Racing Beat intakes, but my gut tells me the High Flow is more responsive to my right foot from 2500-4000 RPM, and that's what matters most to me. And it isnât the header, cat con, exhaust, or even the 14-degree timing; those were all there before I changed the intake from stock, so the comparison is a fair one, with only one variable changed. Besides, look at the numbers at the bottom of this article. They speak for themselves.

Now, I know what the theorists out there are saying·and yes, this intake tract is somewhat longer than that of the Power Pulse or the other CAI, so Iâm losing a few horsepower at the top end. OK, I accept that; but how much of your total road time do you spend above 7000 RPM? Even at the autocross, midrange torque is generally more important than absolute power at the top of the rev band. I happen to be one of those people who will gladly trade a few horsepower at the very top end for a flatter torque curve in the 2500-4000 RPM range. If you've ever done Wynola Road at speed and come out of the second half of one of those two-piece turns wishing for 2nd-and-a-half gear, you know why. The High Flow unit, with its somewhat longer intake run, provides the torque boost that meets my needs perfectly.

At least as difficult as detecting marginal horsepower and torque improvements through the seat of your pants is timing acceleration runs with your Voodoo Knob in one hand and a stopwatch and a steering wheel in the other·especially while trying to watch the road and steer the car down a less than completely straight course. Thank God the business park across the street is relatively flat and nearly deserted in the evening. In a valiant effort to be objective, I recorded some 0-60 times. While not up to Road & Trackâs road test standards, the results were, I thought, revealing·

Not all that bad, and just what the doctor ordered for exiting turns on Wynola Road. So if youâre looking for some cost-effective extra punch, give Racing Beat a call. Then, if you decide you need a little more, cruise the Miata aftermarket for that header, cat con, and exhaust system. When youâre done with that, thereâs lots to choose from out there in springs, shocks, and sway bars to make your run through the twisty parts of Wynola faster too.