Our race-inspired design for this WRX intake will take the more aggressive route of obtaining the maximum power potential an intake can deliver to this FA series motor. Keep in mind, this secondary “Race” design will require tuning for safe operation.

It is important to understand that this will be a very different system than our Performance Intake with two very different vehicles in mind. Our Performance Intake is designed for vehicles either on the stock tune, or on the path of basic modifications such as exhaust, tune, intercooler, etc. For those seeking greater power through more extreme modification (turbo upgrade, TGV removal, aggressive tune, E85, etc.), our new Race Intake might be a better option.

Goals

With the design of our Performance Intake still fresh in the minds of our engineers, we decided to set some performance objectives so we could keep ourselves on track and focused to achieve the goal for this product: more power!

With that in mind, our basic goals for this version WRX intake are noted below:

– Direct-fit install requiring no vehicle modification
– Unrestricted intake path for maximum power potential
– Perform rigorous testing to ensure performance is repeatable

A more in-depth breakdown is provided below.

Direct Fit
We want to be sure that installing this our Race Intake is as quick and painless as with our previous WRX Intake. Instead of coming up with another new airbox design, our hope is to reuse the airbox from our Performance Intake, which uses the stock air-inlet duct to get the freshest air possible to the filter.

Speed and Power!
To get the most power out of this WRX intake, things needed to be bigger. Enlarging the induction pipe diameter is going to be our first task. Through flow analysis we determined that 3” piping will provide ample flow/volume to adequately support

In addition, we are using a very large air filter to accommodate the increased airflow potential of the larger tubing. With the bigger filter and piping, this setup will not be safe on a stock tune. Those who opt for this system will require an upgraded tune for the car to run correctly, but make no mistake, you will not be disappointed.

WRX Parts Testing
As previously mentioned, we will be putting this WRX intake through some extensive testing to ensure the design meets our requirements in terms of output and flow. Our Dynojet™ will come in handy with this particular portion of development. With the bigger piping, it’s important that we note exactly how the intake will increase performance and affect induction. We will look for notable power gains on the dyno graph and a safe AFR output throughout.

Development Beginnings

After placing our airbox into position and hoisting the WRX onto the lift, we began planning out our intake pipe route and design. After some light fabrication and several mockups, we had a rough prototype complete.

This piece features a full 3” diameter from the turbo compressor connection all the way to the filter.

You will notice we’ve topped the pipe with a very large air filter, which should aid in supplying the FA20 with the air it begs for. The total surface area of our Performance Intake features a total of 422 square inches, while our Race Intake has a total of 498 square inches. This equates to about an 18% increase in filter surface area.

3D-Modeling

With our basic design in place, we needed to create a 3D model that accurately depicts our design. This includes all of ancillary features such as MAF housing placement, the mounting bracket location, and the specific geometry of the pipe.

To capture dimensions from our prototype, we placed the component on our CMM table and started logging each point.

Once we have a modeled design, we can begin our fabrication to construct a functional prototype for testing!

It has been a while since we have updated this project, but we now have something for our WRX community!

The brief data report below shows our gains with this race intake project and our baseline was a fully stock 2015 WRX with no upgrade or aftermarket tune. The numbers are quite high due to the upgrades already installed on the WRX during testing. These upgrades included our Mishimoto:

• Downpipe
• Cat-Back Exhaust
• Front-Mount Intercooler
• Custom Engine tune

The graph above shows that the race intake coupled with the Mishimoto upgrades netted peak gains of about 77hp with 88ft-lb of torque, and max gains of about 86hp and 98ft-lb of torque against a fully stock WRX. Considering the vehicle’s bolt-on additions and custom tune, we were expecting big gains. Of course, such large gains are possible only with the installed upgrades, but our intake and a proper tune contributed as well.

Regardless of any bolt-on upgrades, it is important to note that this intake will need to be accompanied by a tune. The larger-diameter piping and MAF (mass airflow) housing will not work with the stock ECU tune. For those who may, for example, have some, or maybe all of the bolt on upgrades already installed on their car, they can expect larger gains over those who are fully stock. The exact power gains that you see with our Race Intake will ultimately depend on your specific modifications and tune.

Our last update on this intake included dyno testing that yielded some interesting numbers. Now that we’re moving closer to the release, let’s take a look at the finished product!

Let’s start with the intake pipes.

These intake pipes will be finished in either wrinkle black, wrinkle red or polished, as shown above. The decision is up to you! These production samples came out nicely and look really great in person. Remember we are using full three inch piping with no step downs, which will require a tune on any WRX that has this race intake installed.

Each pipe will come with a built-in mass airflow (MAF) straightener to help with consistent airflow. Straighteners are very helpful in assisting the MAF sensor to record accurate readings and take turbulent airflow out of the equation. Let’s also not forget that the MAF housing adapter is CNC-machined onto the pipe!

Pictured above is the filter we plan on using for this kit. It is larger and has more surface area than our Performance Intake version. Now let’s look at the box!

This box surrounds the air filter to help keep it shielded from the hot air the engine will radiate. The box is made entirely of steel and is powder coated black.

That does it for the components of our Race Intake kit! We will also include an extended wiring harness for the MAF sensor, pictured above behind the intake pipes.

What’s Next?

Install Guide: