Gruppe M air-intake for 360

I have a GruppeM on my F355. There is slightly more sound coming from the K&N filters but not much. I think it helped performance and they supplied dyno sheets from a F355 tested by Bob Watson, who is a big Porsche and Ferrari tuner in England. Power increase was about 15 HP. Torque curve also changes alittle which helps. The filters are like the ones used on the Lemans Corvettes and Audis.

 

We have a car here with Gruppe M airboxes. They are stunning! I don't believe there is an American distributor, so obtaining them is costly, and a pain in the a$$. I don't think they affect driveability or noise, but are mainly cosmetic add-ons. Is it worth it...........look at the pic and decide.

 

That looks very sexy. I like the gold heat reflector

 

That's not part of the Gruppe M airboxes, he put the foil on himself.

 

Are these just fancy looking carbon airbox covers, or are there some really sexy internal re-workings? Can someone elaborate?

 

I believe you can order Gruppe-M products here in the states..
here is the link:

http://www.gruppemna.com/index.php


the intakes are mainly cosmetic however they do add a bit more HP and Torque...(will you notice the difference in power?,,,probably not,,,more of a plecebo effect) but you will have that much more HP than a stock 360..hehe

 

basically its a repackaged K&N air filter, minimal performance, better sound difference.
it looks sweeet but i dont know if that particular piece is worth $3800.

 

Here is mine with LC racing exhaust.
I think with the intake by itself then it won't make a big difference in performance. If you want more performance then you should add in the ECU upgrade, intake, exhaust, straight pipe for more power.
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Nice do you have all those mods. ? How is the power increase ? I remeber watching a video of that supercharged M3 from Turkey racing the 355 and 360 which had bigger airbox's,exaust,ecu at night.

 

kenny,

that looks sweeet!!!!

i am having pipes/capristo/intake (not gruppe m) done as we speak.
ecu mods are effective on f1 i heard not on 6 speed (which i have).

 

congrats,

You'll love the sound, it's like a formula 1 car.
as for the ecu upgrade, I don't think it matter F1 or 6 speed, well I did it anyway.

 

Yes I did the ecu upgrade/lc 3 exhaust/straight pipe/gruppe M intake/.
Here is the link to all my upgrades

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19034

 

thank you.
it is real torture waiting for the car to get back from the shop.
do you have f1 or 6 speed?
btw... sorry for hijacking the thread, but in regards to ecu upgrades,
i am very interested, but heard that it is a waste of $$ on a 6 speed.
dont know if this is true.

 

I am waiting for Cris at Valence to ship me my airboxes, they should arrive any day. Chris told me they designed them to bring in more air. You might want to give him a shout. I'll fill you all in and post pics after I install mine

 

sounds good.

 

Matt at Meridian Automotive in LA, 888-245-2900 usually stocks the Gruppe M Carbon airintake system. Beautifully designed system and also comes with a heat shield. Apparently they have Dyno charts that show a 8HP gain from this system alone.

 

Kenny,

Did the heat shield came with the airbox or they were there in your engine bay previous to the mods?

Matt

 

I find it hard to beleive the Gruppe M adds 8bhp. It is just a sexy looking carbon fiber airbox. It does not appear that they made the airducts from the actual intake to the box more effiecient and without a high flow exhaust, the intake can only suck so much air in. Maybe with an exhaust and intake you could gain some bhp, but not with just an intake. I usually have found that you gain more benefits from chaging the actual air intake tubing rather then the air box as many vehicles stock air intake tubes are very constrictive (BMW and Mercedes especially). The Gruppe M does look great though!

 

TCM--I am not sure how you can dispute dyno results. Here's fellow Fchatter who posted dyno graphs from his 550 before and after air filter replacement. I can only imagine if the airbox was modified he could probably get a bit more:
http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21771

 

Easy... procedure. 8bhp is just 2% of 400bhp... that's in the noise of a dyno measurement. So, absolutely any useless modification can give you a "before" dyno and an "after" dyno that are 8bhp apart... if you pick the right before and after dynos out of the noise!!

OTOH, given the heat back there, and the black color of the airbox, I've often wondered if a heat reflective shield alone wouldn't be worth 8bhp in reduced intake heat.

But, I agree that airflow-wise, from the picture, I don't see any great improvements.

 

The Gruppe M intake design works.

The filter is designed to increase the air velocity through the center of the AFM sensor, increasing the fuel richness.

That's the secret...

On cars without AFMs (ones that use MAP sensors exclusively) the Gruppe M/K&N filter horn design is less effective.

 

The thread I pointed out was a back-to-back dyno run on a 550 with 25 HP gain through BMC filters vs. stock. That's more than 5% (for some dynos could still be noise). I have not seen the 8 HP gain dyno run but if it is repeatable and they run the set up back to back then yes. I would guess the guys who are running the dyno and trying to provide proof would do it more than once or twice to get an average. And, usually when you run it multiple times and use an average number the noise is averaged out. I am not sure if it really changes the performance of the car significantly, but if you bolt on bigger wheels and tires like the 360CS the added HP will be a wash.

 

The Gruppe-M intake is a great design. Not sure exactly how much power it makes, but I do know the suction sound from the driver side rear vent has now become a vaccuum like scream!
Pics:
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Thanks for the detailed pics h22gordo!

Excuse my ignorance though, but how are these different in design from the other carbon covers you can buy from say Tubi (or other suppliers), apart from the quality of the carbon?

Thanks in advance!