996 Carrera Carbon Fiber Competition Intake System: Has anyone installed this unit onto their 996? How is the install? Performance upgrade? Any comparison to the K&N CAI? Is it worth the $780.00 price tag? Thanks.

 

I don't see where you say what intake you are referring to but based on the price mentioned it must be Fabspeed. I actually just ordered one last weekend so I don't have any firsthand experience to share yet. There is a lot of discussion about intakes on these sites and my take away is that it does not really improve performance despite some dyno graphs that indicate otherwise. I bought mine for the sound and I think it looks great. Stupid reason to spend $800 but .....

 

Most of the actual track junkies I know have upgrades and the factory Airbox isn't one of them. Most run drop in panels and call it a day. Independent dyno's points to the factory Airbox with drop in as the best setup. Can't find the graphs off the top of my head.

If you're going after the "sound" performance than disregard what I said.

 

I have the factory air box with a K&N free flow filter and a silicone air intake hose and it works well. You can actually hear the engins sucking in the air!
If I do change it will be to the Fabspeed dual intake if not for anything else for the nice look.

 

I've read the reports for and against an upgraded airbox. I'm still running my factory airbox and I'm not really planning to change it any time soon.

That Fabspeed competition carbon fiber part looks awesome, and I'm sure it sounds great too!

 

I have the original (single pipe) carbon Fabspeed air intake in combination with an IPD plenum, Fabspeed headers, hi-flow cats and mufflers…other stuff too. With this setup when you go WOT it's all good.

As an aside, if you're in CA you can run into a problem with the Fabspeed competition intake in that it doesn't have a CARB (CA Air Resources Board) approved #. I was able to whine the smog guy into overlooking it (Cats too) pending passing the test, which it did.

 

I dont have experience with fabs, but MOST carbon intake kits end up cracking over time. You do this for the looks, the sound and maybe a handful of ponies here or there.

 

We've posted several threads over the past couple of years regarding dual/carbon intakes. Poke around a little and you should find some.

 

Thanks for the input. Sorry for leaving out Fabspeed as the manufacture. I'm leaning towards the K&N CAI in respect to $270.00 to $800.00 for the Fabspeed. Can't justify the extra $500.00+ for something that minimal change.

 

I would only do the drop in k&n panel. The full K&N kit is the WORST aftermarket intake you can get and you might actually lose power. Any well made intake system for NA cars has to have minimal bends, especially for MAF based cars as it needs the straightest airflow possible for max accurate airflow readings. The K&N full kit doesn't achieve this and will create a good amount of turbulence in the airstream. Personally I would save your money and get silicone hose, drop in panel filter(BMC is my fav), and take out resonator assembly and block the hole with block off plate or get ready made one from Fabspeed.

 

Check out the EuroCupGT Twin Intake, even with shipping you'll save $$$

 

If you do any oiled filter,make sure you wrap it in news paper the day before you install it. It will soak up all the excess oil in the filter,which could damage your MAF . Ask me how I know……haha.

 

+1 this is true

 

I love the marketing term "twin" these days on things like intakes(and babes).

You have to remember that unless you have ported/polished heads and cams, you're not gonna be able to fully utilize the extra flow and air volume gained from some aftermarket intakes as now your head/factory intake manifold will be the bottleneck.

Sure you may gain 5-8hp typically as aftermarket intakes don't have constraints like the factory had in terms of sound/longevity of filtration maintenance and such. Personally I can't justify spending close to $1k with those kinds of returns.

Also you can show off both at a time but you can only screw one at a time. Lol