So bros, why hasn't anyone done this yet.. I know the engineers that made the car are way smarter than I could hope to be... so why wouldn't they give the car a straighter path to pull in air?? Wouldn't that help response time and maybe some HP gains?

RCF intake mod?

 

Actually..that is a logical path. I know the MAF filament would need cleaning a LOT more often...but other than that..I see this as a good "Ram Air" solution...
perhaps the air would be too "turbulent" with such a short path?
airlaird

 

Our intake box has a double air intske. The second on the far left of your pic as you lnow is opened at 3500rpms via vaccum switch. Something to do with the advanced fuel efficiency system, I forget tje name. Anyway. I agree, why can we have a better CIA system???

maybe Raf with RRRacing cannweigh in

 

heatsoak...

 

Shouldn't be any heat soak at all since it's pulling straight from the outside. Should have less heat soak than the stock intake due to the incoming air being exposed to the engine bay heat for a shorter time.

 

well the Joe z intake in my is350 gives more power and better pedal response, and all that intake really does is make the airflow go down a smoother path..

 

No what ?

what he is asking is Can a more simplified intake that consumes more cold air than our current config be advantageous?
right?

there is a ton of hot air being inhaled when the side intake opens up, right?

 

I am no way an expert, but I think this would require a much smaller air filter, which is probably going to be a lot less efficient. Not to mention, debris would either shoot through it or accumulate and clog the system pretty quick.

 

+1 Water as well I would think.

 

vehicle design for one, in order to have a straight shot the air box would need to be mounted in front of the radiator behind the grille and there isn't enough room with the current design of the front fascia, plus the cruise sonar electronics are mounted there.

secondly, Lexus would then have to have a one off design for the RC, where currently the 5.0 motor is about to be shared across multiple models, so the current design is universal for the other models..


and lastly noise reduction Lexus is about quiet always had been, it is one of their founding ideologies, and while they do give the RC a bit of growl when the secondary flap opens in the 3K rpm range, overall the vehicle is a Lexus and it is designed to be quiet.

 

Lol..Apone nailed it...water intrusion..Well done...not sure how we all missed that...
airlaird

 

doubtful.

corvettes have had the design for 4 generations of the car:

 

That intake plenum of the corvette clearly does not show an intake going into the MAF and throttle body...it shoes it going into the engine bay
the second pick shows a curved plenum that points downward away from any possible water intrusion .....it proves apones point
airlaird

 

The OP's picture is misleading, you cannot put an intake directly from that forward scoop to the throttle body, you would need to have an air box like the corvette in front of the radiator behind the grille/fascia as I stated earlier, and then have a tube like the corvette up and over the core support into the throttle body. .

there is not enough room from the forward scoop on the RC to the throttle body for a filter, aside from the fact that the hood wouldn't close the space is too small between the radiator overflow bottle and the throttle body.

simply placing an open filter there would not accomplish anything but major heat soak, an open filter under the hood of the RCF would have major heat soak period, you need a box or some type of shield between the filter and the throttle body to build positive pressure.

K&N, AEM, and B-Line have all tested and experimented with open filter systems for the RCF and they all lead to heat soak, the only way to prevent it is to have a box or separation shield between the filter and the TB. . I know because all 3 companies have used my RCF for their CAI fabrication over the past 1.5 years. Dyno testing on all the open filter designs shows loss of power and heat soak.

 

That scoop does not really get "ram" air. Even if you were to redesign te front of the car for a true ram air effect, you would still need to put a curve or bend into the pipe. The reason is that with a MAF sensor in place, if you were to ram air at it at high speed you would change the MAF readings and get abnormally high values at high speeds. A true ram air would be a lot easier to tune with a non-MAF setup.

Rafi