Hello members...


I am New to this Forum. I have been a Porsche enthusiast for years. My interest was in the classic vintage so I spent my time on the Pelican Forums under the user name noavgdrvr which I am using here as well.


I recently sold my '77 911s Turbo body and purchased an '05 Carrera S. I never imagine myself in a watercooled 911, didn't think I'd like the experience but I was wrong. I believe this car is the perfect evolution from the aircooled 911s'


Anyway... I have the opportunity to purchase a Fabspeed Competition Air Intake System at a great price. I love what it does for the looks of the engine bay and it seems to truly have a positive effect on performance. I need to hear opinions of this set up. I have heard several sound clips from various videos. I realize the sound clips can't accurately reproduce the true sound effect of the intake but, I must say that I am not impressed by the sound. Imo it sounds simply un-tuned.


I'd like to run this intake with the PSE mod oem exhaust but again before I pull the trigger on this purchase I wanna hear from a few members with same set up.


In my experience I have only heard one car that sounds incredible with a cai and that is the Volkswagen VR6. It imo is a vast improvement over the stock intake and makes the car sound like a supercar.


Please, I hope I haven't offended anyone here, that is not my intent just my opinion. perhaps I'm wrong. If there are any NY area members with 997 cai systems who'd like to meet and allow me to hear the real deal lemme know but in the mean time all responses are appreciated.


Thnks

 

CAI = sound and looks only...no appreciable power increase.

 

I agree with what jh said. CAIs offer sound and appearance only. I have discussed this at length with both my SA and the owner of the Indy shop I use. Both agreed that the stock intake on the 997 is excellent and that the aftermarket CAIs do not offer any increase in HP.

 

Yea...+1 on that. The claims of increasing HP by 8/10/15, whatever HP are just misleading to the public.


I had one on my VW 2004 R32, and it sounded great, and gave me maybe 5% more throttle response.


I just threw a BMC filter in my stock airbox... My own personal way of single handedly saving the planet.

 

Owned an mk4 R32 myself as well. Had Evoms intake. Sounded great. Got an Evoms intake on the 997. Just for the sound, makes it more fun to drive. I do not feel any power gains, and honestly I did not purchase it for gains either. When the switch over happens on high rpms car sounds like a race car. Love it. Reminds me of my old 964 with airbox mod.

 

I personally had the Fabspeed CAI in my 07 4S. Looks great. Won't deny that. Sounds great on the top end. That's it. There was no change to performance and the only real adder is the top end. Took it out and went back to stock. If you can get an X51 air box, cut the opening on the other side...you can see some gains.

Not worth the cost to performance ratio.

 

FT... I too had the EVOMS intake on my 32. I think the wee bit of throttle response I get from these sound mods can give a false sense of any real power put down.


Lets face it... it was easy to try the EVOMs unit on a vW for 300 bucks, but these Porsche aftermarket parts compared to the other german stuff is just too crazy priced....for me.


theres a used CAI on the marketplace nor iirc.

 

great responses guys... I feel kinda foolish, here I am being the typical consumer. I watched the fabspeed Youtube video intently and actually believed what he was saying. I've graduated from VW and Audis' and never thought that any of the cai systems actually did anything beyond making a little more noise. lol, don't know why I'm thinking anything different with the Porsche. Fabspeeds video does a great job of the wool pull.


Well, with that being said and all of your well informed responses I think I'll stay with the stock set up. I also feel that this Aftermarket stuff for the Porsche is far too expensive to buy just for looks or bragging rights.


I may Visit Fabspeed and have them install the intake and do an on the spot Dyno just to give them a chance.

 

Generally, the ratio of cost to benefit is not a very good one since the NA engine stock is pretty much wrung out, hence the GTS where the cost for added hp is rather steep.

If it's sound you're after, consider a Fister/Gundo mod. Yes you theoretically could increase the power, but check out the cost of doing so with a reputable tuner (FVD, GIAC, EVOMS, etc). You will find that the financial hit is north of 1k. Then unless you track, you'll need to ask yourself where and how often you'll be able to exploit that power, whether the car's integrity will be somewhat compromised. It has to be worth the trouble.

 

Well said!!

 

A much simpler solution is to replace the intake hose and block off the Hemholtz resonator. I found the hose on eBay for $30, and it sounds terrific. I'm sure there's no power increase, but it will increase your smiles per gallon.

 

Does blocking off the resonator cause any issues? What function does it serve?

 

TUV noise reduction requirements.

 

That's it. It's strictly to reduce noise. You get a sweet intake sound with it capped off.

 

I just did this. Took the cap off a bottle of Castrol oil, turned it upside down and plugged the resonator.

Nine sounds more "throaty" below 4k (above 4k the resonator is bypassed anyway for S models)