In the process of designing an intake for my car, I've read multiple descriptions of aftermarket intakes as "Ram Air" only because they utilize the factory inlet; the problem with this is that this inlet is drawing air from the bumper cavity, the large opening in the bumper mostly route air to cooling the rad and condenser, and whatever air is coming in from the emblem opening is made turbulent or static within that volume.
I did a quick sketch and CFD analysis of the bumper volume with air inlet (top right) and emblem inlet (bottom middle), the inlet is effectively picking up 0 pressure air~ no Ram
- CFD Stock.jpg (96.98 KiB) Viewed 3353 times
An easy solution to this issue might be to poke holes in the bumper, and I’ve seen this done once with an aftermarket bumper.
However, I’m not a fan of chopping up my factory bumper if I can help it, If the front emblem area is opened up a bit, using a smaller emblem, or none, it might make an ideal entry for a ram-air pipe. I made a simple design, that I'll adjust to avoid cutting and interference. The CFD analysis show smooth fast flow.
- RAM air inlet.jpg (15.05 KiB) Viewed 3353 times
- Ram Air CFD.jpg (87.94 KiB) Viewed 3353 times
At the very least it would provide faster moving COLD air, and not somewhat turbulent warm air for an under hood open intake . Now with a system like stock or EC 4.1, this type of ram pipe would likely show greater benefit, as there would be vacuum applied directly to cold external air.
