Cold Air, Ram Air, and Pro Touring Aerodynamcs. Thoughts?

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Hey all. I come from a drag race background and understand the advantage of ram air with a carb sealed off to the hood. My car runs a carb'd SBC, and between the taller intake and 5" K&N filter even with a drop base air cleaner it sticks about 2 1/2" above the hood. To save weight I recently ordered a flat fiberglass hood and because I don't like the shape of that brand's cowl ind. hood and I wanted something different I opted to buy a Vette Stinger scoop to mold in.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2016/08/SC104A_300_zpsquwdgk7u-1.jpg

I had a cheap ABS stick on cowl ind scoop on the car in the past and it worked very well at bringing in fresh air from the back with the carb sealed to the hood. I later put on a Cobra Jet Mustang style scoop for the ram air effect, but I have no way to tell if that short of a scoop is working efficiently and if it messes with aero enough to be concerned about it. I've had the car up to 145 for short stints but don't anticipate going much faster than that. For the most part the car is a daily driver and weekend autocross car, and I may hit one or two Optima type events a year where the car will be on the road course. BTW the hood and fenders will have heat extractor vents so I won't be using the scoop to relieve heat, see below.

I have the option of having either the front open and close off the back for ram air, or close off the front and have the back open to take advantage of the cowl induction effect. I'm wondering what some of you guys have done to get cold air into the motor and why you chose the route you did.



https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2016/08/Pumkinator20162082072_zpsjeaqzf5t-1.jpg

[Zspoiler]

There are different ways to get cold and or ram air to the Carb .As long as the carb is sealed to outside air .Just like they learned from Muscle car ,and race cars of the 60`s and 70`s.Through hood scoops,The cowl (ala NASCAR) or a sealed air filter box with hoses or ducting to the front of the car. Olds 442`s ,etc. And the "Look" and "Aero" you want to give the car.

[jlcustomz]

I agree that sealed off to the outside is the most important thing.
I'd go with front open on yours for a few reasons. Average mounting position would be a ways from the windshield not giving a good windshield pressure effect. Also closing off the front isn't exactly aerodynamic with that scoop. I think the front opened & sealed would have a marginal ram effect, but not too tall for you to ever notice an areo disadvantage.

I know we both build fender vents & I can definitely see the heat waves coming out of mine even in cool weather sometimes. Haven't looked through you build thread recently, but that looks like an add in hood extractor vent? About ready to cut a couple of mesh grille openings in mine. I think the trend of hood extractor vents is a good thing & they can actually add a little safety at high speed, not having the wind pushing up the hood along with the front end its connected to as much.
Just my thoughts.
Of course you know I'm biased on front opening hood scoops.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2016/07/20160711_194107_zpseahcmtyx-1.jpg (http://s1094.photobucket.com/user/jlcustomz1/media/20160711_194107_zpseahcmtyx.jpg.html)

[Nicks67GTO]

In 1967 Pontiac made 751 Ram Air GTO's. My understanding of the Ram Air setup is that while it was cool and was known for 10 more hp, it became a problem when trying to increase power much beyond stock levels since all of the fresh air had to come through the small open gto hood scoop. It was also a bit if a problem in the rain with water running right down the scoop and getting into the filter. Just a couple things to consider.