The Myth about HP Gain with Aftermarket Airfilter

When I was at the Michelotto factory in 2002, they were up to engine no.30 for the 360 N-GT cars. Each engine spends at least 2 hours on the dyno for assessment and development, and then a run to produce figures. Some engine spend cinsiderably more if the team has requested particular things.

They have their own development engine too, which is an experimental test bed.

Do you really think that after at least 100 hours of engine dyno running, they'd still be unsure about the efficiency of the air filter?

The ONLY way to have true comparitive figures is from an engine dyno, not chassis dyno. And then the tests must be done in strictly controlled conditions.

On a chassis dyno, the loss from unstable tyre temperature, various air and fluid temperatures and frictinal losses are too high for the air filter to be accurately tested, as it is only a small difference in many cases.

I just happened to read in the 550 manual that the paper filter is a 10 micron quality element (unnecessarily fine IMO). Does anyone have a figure for BMC or K&N??

Maybe the only difference between Rubens and Michael is that Rubens still uses a paper air filter 'cos he heard on a forum that they make no difference??

 

In race series there are sometimes rules of the sanctioning body which prohibit certain type of filters though.