Three product reviews in one...SPT Intake and Heat shield and Prodrive uppipe...

Well, I had some extra money lying around from my department check and decided I'd give these a shot. The heat shield I can't say too much for, I'm sure it's keeping some of the hot air away...

The intake, I'm actually rather impressed with. The hardware that it comes with is better than I expected, and it has some nice touches like the guides for the coolant and the cruise control wire cast into the intake piping. The nice thing about it is that it is a very easy install, which it should be considering it's a "factory" part.

As far as actual power gains, my butt dyno needle twitches, but that's about it. What is nice is the fact that my car used to fall flat on it's face after 6k rpms (I wonder if part of that is because I'm running 215/45s, so there is a bit of a gearing difference...It just never seemed to do that when I had my 205/55s on) but now pulls hard right to the 7k mark. Of course, the noises are fun, the wooshing and whistling and such.

In the same vein, the uppipe doesn't really contribute that much as far as power, but there is a somewhat noticeable difference in both spool time and powerband smoothness. The car is also a bit louder, which doesn't bother me at all, and there is a bit of a rasp to the exhaust note that wasn't there before. I'm viewing this as more of a supporting mod to the Cobb kit that will be following along later this year (sooner if I get that dispatch job...).

All in all, these were fun mods and worth the money.

 

Yup, I'm still kicking...since I don't spend my day in front of the computer at work I've noticed my online time has decreased dramatically. That may be changing though here pretty soon...