I had the GruppeM air intake fitted to my car and it is/was sensational. The noise is like nothing else and brings a grin to the dial every time the load pedal goes down. I have been running this air box for over a year now with no issues. Recently I had a load of work done to the car (stage two manifold etc etc) and what I was finding was that the car wasn't quite as smooth as it used to be. It still laid down the power but wasn't 100%. A bit of a play round with the orientation of the MAF and I managed to smooth this out somewhat but I had a CEL come on. Timster stepped up to the plate and worked his magic and we downloaded the logs and cleared the fault. 3 days of driving and it never came back, result, car running reasonably smoothly, loads of power and plenty of noise.
I was booked in at MRC for this morning just to have a good go over as to why the car threw up the CEL and to see if we could get it running that extra 5% smoother. On the dyno all looked ok, no major issues or 'hunting' at steady speeds and the car was still making power, again good news. Doug wanted to swap in the old airbox with a high flow filter in to see if we could achieve the smooth running that a stock RS would have.
Once the swap was done the car was thrown on the dyno and Doug dialled it in. Out for a test drive and the car was far more refined and had the stock smoothness back (partly as the ridiculously fantastic noise was gone).
Whats the kicker? The car with either airbox made exactly the same power and the torque and power curves were identical to each other
So for those of you out there who are considering either system it really doesn't seem to matter, however for me, without a doubt I would always choose the GruppeM for noise and looks. It really is an awesome bit of 'sensation' kit making you want to keep mashing the pedal down. As I have no SAI I am keeping the standard air box in for day to day driving and the GruppeM will go in for a bit of a laugh or if I have a 'driving' trip, best of both worlds
So cheers to Doug and the guys at MRC and to Timster for his VCDS
