Back to back test: Cold Air Inductions cold air intake
11-16-2016, 10:29 AM
#1
Back to back test: Cold Air Inductions cold air intake TL;DR: It’s worth it in my book. Probably ~10-15whp
VIDEO:
I will try to be as thorough as possible, which means this is going to be a lengthy post, so if you would like the abbreviated version, please watch the video.
MY CAR:
2SS, 8 speed auto, sunroof, leather, pretty much every option but MRC. I rolled 8,400 miles on the way to the track. The car is 100% the way it rolled off of the showroom floor, except for tint. The stock tires are toast. The track announced this last day just a few days before the actual event, so I didn’t have time to get the new tires on.
BACKGROUND:
I would like to preface this with a little background. There have been a few reviews out there of this intake, mostly dyno results that have showed virtually zero net gains. This has happened with a few other intakes as well, and it seems to mostly be on the 8 speeds. I will openly admit that this let some doubt into my mind of whether the intake would show any gains at all, but as always, dynos are not real world experience, close to it but not the same. As of this post, I am not aware of another person that has done this back to back test at the track. I still might do the back to back test on the dyno, but this test gave me enough confidence in saying the intake definitely gives some gains.
I received an intake from Cold Air Inductions a little over a month ago, but didn’t even have time to crack the box open because of work and some wedding I’ve been a part of. All this meant I had 1 final day at the track to complete my back to back test. My home track is Gateway Motorsports Park in St. Louis (technically Madison, IL) and we ran this past Saturday, November 12th.
PRE-INSTALL/STOCK TESTING:
I went to the track with the intake in the trunk, ready to be swapped over. I really wanted to hit my personal goal of 11.999 100% stock before swapping it on, but I also wanted to make sure I had time to do the test. I wanted to do it as scientifically as possible so I had a good sample size to make the comparison. I’ve made probably 20-30 passes in the car, playing with all different launch techniques and any and every combination of traction control settings, so I feel like I have a decent handle on how the car performs and how to launch it.
Pass #1- 12.032 @ 116.54 (-402 DA) SLIP
Pass #2- 12.017 @ 117.87 (-368 DA) SLIP
Pass #3- 11.995 @ 117.72 (-342 DA) SLIP
After that 11.99 pass, I was stoked about hitting my goal, and ready to throw the intake on. I was also there with some friends and doing some testing and video with them, so I parked the car so I could go video a few friends chasing 8s and one chasing 7s. He made a few passes, and then we went back to throw the intake on.
INSTALL:
Just to reiterate, I went to the track with the box still unopened. I had no idea what tools I needed, how it would fit, etc. After making the final stock pass, we ripped open the box. Packed nice and snug to stay safe, always a good sight, as are the little extras they throw in. Pulled everything out of the box, and we had everything we needed. I will say that we never open the instructions, so I can’t speak to if they are well done or not. What I can say is that it was very straightforward with no “what do we do with this” parts. I would think any novice could put this on relatively quickly. Even if it was your first ever try at installing parts, you could do this in 30 minutes with the right tools, no question.
What you need:
POST-INSTALL TESTING:
The DA had now climbed a bit, so I was didn’t know if the gains would be much. Once the install was complete, we turned the car on to make sure there were no Check Engine lights, and revved it up to hear the new sound ?.
What I have seen in back to back dyno tests is people saying that they gave the car no time to learn the intake, and maybe that was the cause for low/no gains. I wanted to test this for sure to prove or disprove that. My car had virtually no time to learn the intake; I literally drove from my parking spot, sat in line for maybe 2 minutes with the car on, and then was doing my burnout.
I used LC to be sure it was a clean pass, and sure enough it was. As I mentioned, I have done 20-30 passes in the car stock, and gaining ANY time was pretty much solely dependent on the weather at this point. When the DA drops, my ET follows suit; when the DA goes up, so does my ET (assuming a clean launch). I immediately noticed it sounds VERY “throaty” with a deep sound from intake. Grabbed my slip and…boom! 11.91! That’s a .08 gain right off the bat with the DA getting 134 points worse. I made a few backup passes as well.
PASS #4- 11.919 @ 117.82 (-211 DA) SLIP
PASS #5- 11.948 @ 117.03 (-226 DA) SLIP
PASS #6- 11.932 @ 117.81 (-301 DA) SLIP
So let’s look at the data…
Stock average: 12.015 @ 117.38 (-370 DA)
CAI average: 11.933 @ 117.55 (-246 DA)
Best to best comparison: 0.076 quicker ET, 0.10 faster MPH, while the DA got worse (climbed 131 points):
Marker-.... STOCK - CAI - COMMENTS
60’-.............1.835 - 1.837 - Slightly slower on the CAI launch
330’-...........5.122 - 4.955 - CAI already making up time
1/8 ET-.......7.790 - 7.735 - gap growing
1/8 MPH-....91.64 - 92.28 - +1 MPH for the intake
1/4 ET- ......11.995 - 11.919 - just shy of a full tenth
1/4 MPH-....117.72 - 117.82 - stock intake gaining some MPH
DA-.............(-342) - (-211) - decent difference in DA, worse for the CAI
Here is my previous best slip (12.04 @ 116) from October 27, as well as the CAI average:
*Nov12+Oct27 average: 12.021 @ 116.94 (-428 DA)
CAI average: 11.933 @ 117.55 (-246 DA)
*note- had I included my best 3 slips from that night, it would’ve been over a tenth gained.
What I find very interesting is that all 3 bests, Oct 27 stock, Nov 12 stock, and with the CAI, all have the same 60’ (used LC on all 3) and you can see the CAI is gaining quick. Had the DA been exactly the same, and I kept trying for a perfect pass with the intake on, I think a mid 11.8x would have been easily possible. I do find the lack of MPH gain interesting, but when we’re talking about gaining ~10hp, it’s going to be negligible. Had I been able to match my all time best 60' of 1.78, I think things would've got real interesting, but I digress.
Another member here was in attendance with his A8 6th gen, all stock save for the same intake, no tune, he has cloth seats to my leather, and a drag pack with slicks (Racestar fronts and rears, says he lost 100lbs from the wheels and tires), and he ran a best of 11.71 @ 118 that day. I think this backs up my theory even more than it was worth it. His previous best was 12.04 @ 115.
WHAT I COULD’VE DONE BETTER:
In retrospect, I wish I would’ve taken the intake off and make a few more passes just to verify my results even more so and video the install, but oh well. It was a rushed day with everything going on.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
I have been driving the car nonstop since the track, and it has not thrown a CEL, nor has it had any hiccups or any negative effects of driving manners. The sound in the car is pretty addictive, sounds much more mean. The piece itself is great quality, and looks fantastic in the engine bay. My friend actually said “damn that looks good” when we finally got it all installed lol.
CONCLUSION
This is where it comes down to opinion based on the HP/$. I won’t post a price of the intake, as that depends on vendor and current sales going on.
-If you want easy, bolt-on horsepower, I would definitely recommend this intake. I feel that the ET it gained with the DA going up proves that it DEFINITIVELY picks up horsepower; I would also say it definitively overrules dyno tests that showed zero gains.
-If you want every last horsepower out of the car, this intake will definitely help get you there.
-If you want a good looking engine bay, with some extra growl in the cabin to go along with some horsepower gains, I would buy this intake.
-If you don’t want to spend a bunch of money on a cold air intake and don’t care about the gains, you have to decide on if the price you are paying is worth it.
WOULD I RECOMMEND IT?
Yes.
VIDEO:
I will try to be as thorough as possible, which means this is going to be a lengthy post, so if you would like the abbreviated version, please watch the video.
MY CAR:
2SS, 8 speed auto, sunroof, leather, pretty much every option but MRC. I rolled 8,400 miles on the way to the track. The car is 100% the way it rolled off of the showroom floor, except for tint. The stock tires are toast. The track announced this last day just a few days before the actual event, so I didn’t have time to get the new tires on.
BACKGROUND:
I would like to preface this with a little background. There have been a few reviews out there of this intake, mostly dyno results that have showed virtually zero net gains. This has happened with a few other intakes as well, and it seems to mostly be on the 8 speeds. I will openly admit that this let some doubt into my mind of whether the intake would show any gains at all, but as always, dynos are not real world experience, close to it but not the same. As of this post, I am not aware of another person that has done this back to back test at the track. I still might do the back to back test on the dyno, but this test gave me enough confidence in saying the intake definitely gives some gains.
I received an intake from Cold Air Inductions a little over a month ago, but didn’t even have time to crack the box open because of work and some wedding I’ve been a part of. All this meant I had 1 final day at the track to complete my back to back test. My home track is Gateway Motorsports Park in St. Louis (technically Madison, IL) and we ran this past Saturday, November 12th.
PRE-INSTALL/STOCK TESTING:
I went to the track with the intake in the trunk, ready to be swapped over. I really wanted to hit my personal goal of 11.999 100% stock before swapping it on, but I also wanted to make sure I had time to do the test. I wanted to do it as scientifically as possible so I had a good sample size to make the comparison. I’ve made probably 20-30 passes in the car, playing with all different launch techniques and any and every combination of traction control settings, so I feel like I have a decent handle on how the car performs and how to launch it.
Pass #1- 12.032 @ 116.54 (-402 DA) SLIP
Pass #2- 12.017 @ 117.87 (-368 DA) SLIP
Pass #3- 11.995 @ 117.72 (-342 DA) SLIP
After that 11.99 pass, I was stoked about hitting my goal, and ready to throw the intake on. I was also there with some friends and doing some testing and video with them, so I parked the car so I could go video a few friends chasing 8s and one chasing 7s. He made a few passes, and then we went back to throw the intake on.
INSTALL:
Just to reiterate, I went to the track with the box still unopened. I had no idea what tools I needed, how it would fit, etc. After making the final stock pass, we ripped open the box. Packed nice and snug to stay safe, always a good sight, as are the little extras they throw in. Pulled everything out of the box, and we had everything we needed. I will say that we never open the instructions, so I can’t speak to if they are well done or not. What I can say is that it was very straightforward with no “what do we do with this” parts. I would think any novice could put this on relatively quickly. Even if it was your first ever try at installing parts, you could do this in 30 minutes with the right tools, no question.
What you need:
- 2.5mm Allen
- 3.0mm Allen
- T20 Torx bit
- 10mm socket
- Flathead screwdriver
- Pliers
POST-INSTALL TESTING:
The DA had now climbed a bit, so I was didn’t know if the gains would be much. Once the install was complete, we turned the car on to make sure there were no Check Engine lights, and revved it up to hear the new sound ?.
What I have seen in back to back dyno tests is people saying that they gave the car no time to learn the intake, and maybe that was the cause for low/no gains. I wanted to test this for sure to prove or disprove that. My car had virtually no time to learn the intake; I literally drove from my parking spot, sat in line for maybe 2 minutes with the car on, and then was doing my burnout.
I used LC to be sure it was a clean pass, and sure enough it was. As I mentioned, I have done 20-30 passes in the car stock, and gaining ANY time was pretty much solely dependent on the weather at this point. When the DA drops, my ET follows suit; when the DA goes up, so does my ET (assuming a clean launch). I immediately noticed it sounds VERY “throaty” with a deep sound from intake. Grabbed my slip and…boom! 11.91! That’s a .08 gain right off the bat with the DA getting 134 points worse. I made a few backup passes as well.
PASS #4- 11.919 @ 117.82 (-211 DA) SLIP
PASS #5- 11.948 @ 117.03 (-226 DA) SLIP
PASS #6- 11.932 @ 117.81 (-301 DA) SLIP
So let’s look at the data…
Stock average: 12.015 @ 117.38 (-370 DA)
CAI average: 11.933 @ 117.55 (-246 DA)
Best to best comparison: 0.076 quicker ET, 0.10 faster MPH, while the DA got worse (climbed 131 points):
Marker-.... STOCK - CAI - COMMENTS
60’-.............1.835 - 1.837 - Slightly slower on the CAI launch
330’-...........5.122 - 4.955 - CAI already making up time
1/8 ET-.......7.790 - 7.735 - gap growing
1/8 MPH-....91.64 - 92.28 - +1 MPH for the intake
1/4 ET- ......11.995 - 11.919 - just shy of a full tenth
1/4 MPH-....117.72 - 117.82 - stock intake gaining some MPH
DA-.............(-342) - (-211) - decent difference in DA, worse for the CAI
Here is my previous best slip (12.04 @ 116) from October 27, as well as the CAI average:
*Nov12+Oct27 average: 12.021 @ 116.94 (-428 DA)
CAI average: 11.933 @ 117.55 (-246 DA)
*note- had I included my best 3 slips from that night, it would’ve been over a tenth gained.
What I find very interesting is that all 3 bests, Oct 27 stock, Nov 12 stock, and with the CAI, all have the same 60’ (used LC on all 3) and you can see the CAI is gaining quick. Had the DA been exactly the same, and I kept trying for a perfect pass with the intake on, I think a mid 11.8x would have been easily possible. I do find the lack of MPH gain interesting, but when we’re talking about gaining ~10hp, it’s going to be negligible. Had I been able to match my all time best 60' of 1.78, I think things would've got real interesting, but I digress.
Another member here was in attendance with his A8 6th gen, all stock save for the same intake, no tune, he has cloth seats to my leather, and a drag pack with slicks (Racestar fronts and rears, says he lost 100lbs from the wheels and tires), and he ran a best of 11.71 @ 118 that day. I think this backs up my theory even more than it was worth it. His previous best was 12.04 @ 115.
WHAT I COULD’VE DONE BETTER:
In retrospect, I wish I would’ve taken the intake off and make a few more passes just to verify my results even more so and video the install, but oh well. It was a rushed day with everything going on.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
I have been driving the car nonstop since the track, and it has not thrown a CEL, nor has it had any hiccups or any negative effects of driving manners. The sound in the car is pretty addictive, sounds much more mean. The piece itself is great quality, and looks fantastic in the engine bay. My friend actually said “damn that looks good” when we finally got it all installed lol.
CONCLUSION
This is where it comes down to opinion based on the HP/$. I won’t post a price of the intake, as that depends on vendor and current sales going on.
-If you want easy, bolt-on horsepower, I would definitely recommend this intake. I feel that the ET it gained with the DA going up proves that it DEFINITIVELY picks up horsepower; I would also say it definitively overrules dyno tests that showed zero gains.
-If you want every last horsepower out of the car, this intake will definitely help get you there.
-If you want a good looking engine bay, with some extra growl in the cabin to go along with some horsepower gains, I would buy this intake.
-If you don’t want to spend a bunch of money on a cold air intake and don’t care about the gains, you have to decide on if the price you are paying is worth it.
WOULD I RECOMMEND IT?
Yes.
