Air filter housing improvements
After fitting the Pipercross cleanable panel filter, the next step came when I had a look at the path the air had to take as it left the filter housing. It seemed to have make a rather sharp turn to get into the duct to the throttle body, so I reckoned I could make a flow improver to put a bigger radius at the entry. The easiest way was to shape up a piece of nature’s composite material (wood) as per the photos. It’s simply attached to the side wall of the top cover with a couple of woodscrews.
Home
Back to improvements
Back to powerplant & chassis
Site map
Welcome - Home - Mods & Improvements - Powerplant & Chassis - filter housing
The obvious question is ‘Does it work?’ The answer is I’ve no idea, but on top of all the other tweaks, the car seems to go extremely well.I recently took it along to a local rather empty dual carriageway that has about a one-mile of level stretch. There I was able to time it from 30 to 70mph in 3rd gear, to compare it with the original 1995 Autocar road test. That timed it at 11.6 seconds, but I measured mine now at an average of just two runs in opposite directions at 8.8 seconds. Some but not all of that is down to the lower gearbox ratios of the VVC box, but it does seem that I’ve got a useful overall power increase.The only unanswered question comes from the car now seeming to have difficulty producing the necessary emissions numbers for its MoT - do I have to take some of these mods outfor a pass, or is the cat not working properly? Time will tell....Well, the latest news is that a new cat has easily done the trick. I’m now wondering whether to try the old one with its guts removed as a quick decat try-out. Or I could get the old flanges welded to a length of plain pipe. The new all-stainless nuts & bolts should make for an easy swap.
