Where the FRA and FTRA really help you
Thread Starter
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 2,152
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From: Virginia Beach, Va
Where the FRA and FTRA really help you i know its a long ongoing debate about 1) whether it really helps at all 2) where exactly it makes the most difference. it seems to me that opening up the bottom of the airbox like this will simply let u take in more air at one time. i do feel, however, that this will also slow down the velocity of the incoming air. i look at this concept the same as intake runner diameter or header primary diameter. the bigger the diameter, the more air u bring in at one time, but the slower it will move compared to a smaller diameter, where you arent bringing in as much air in one gulp, but the velocity is much higher. thus, smaller diameter primaries/runners will give you more torque cuz of the high velocity of the air moving (even at low rpms)...but larger diameter will make a difference in the higher rpms, only when your motor is turning fast enough to get that large volume of air in and out quickly. so, correct me if im wrong, but this would be the same concept. opening up the bottom of your airbox, while bringing in a bigger gulp of air, will mostly help you at higher rpms...thus producing horsepower rather than torque.
Back in 2000 or 2001, there were a bunch of us who track tested FTRA. With the lower plate installed, it pretty consistently produced .1 and 1 mph in the 1/4.
FRA was a mixed bag. The drawback is that at the starting line while you are sitting staged, the car is sucking in warm air from the engine bay - not exactly helpful for a good 60'.
When FTRA first came out, there were a lot of skeptics so the results were watched pretty carefully. I did back to back testing with FRA on my own car.
I don't think the bigger opening reduces velocity. If you look at the filter from a car with FTRA, you'll see a dirt band in a fairly small area compared with the size of the air filter. Most of the air would appear to pass through this smaller area.
FRA was a mixed bag. The drawback is that at the starting line while you are sitting staged, the car is sucking in warm air from the engine bay - not exactly helpful for a good 60'.
When FTRA first came out, there were a lot of skeptics so the results were watched pretty carefully. I did back to back testing with FRA on my own car.
I don't think the bigger opening reduces velocity. If you look at the filter from a car with FTRA, you'll see a dirt band in a fairly small area compared with the size of the air filter. Most of the air would appear to pass through this smaller area.
Usually the bigger a runner, intake, etc the lower the velocity and that can hurt low-midrange power, but the incoming air is still necked down to the diamater of the maf/bellows/then TB plenum before it gets in the intake. That said, I didn't notice any difference when I did FRA and will probably install the FTRA when I get the money. I did it before I read about how the IAT can rise and pull timing when you suck hot radiator air in.
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