Hey, I love this car just as much as the next Corvette nut, but facts are facts, and I wouldn't own any other Chevrolet product. Toyota's are the daily driver choice in my household.

 

Callaway engineers conducted extensive testing to determine whether water would enter the intake system during rain or other wet road conditions. Thousands of hours were logged in C5 and later C6 configurations, at stock ride height and lowered about 1 inch. After heavy rain or snow or simulated wet weather, the systems were disassembled for inspection. They never found evidence of any water inside the air duct.

I was surprised by a VERY heavy rainstorm on my way home to Connecticut from Carlisle last Sunday night. I was driving a Callaway SuperCharged Corvette that was equipped with a Honker. The deluge came down on I-95 in Connecticut and lasted for more than an hour, during which I drove only about 30 miles. Sometimes we slowed to a crawl, at other times I could reach up to 55 mph. This was some of the heaviest rain I've ever driven through. It was quite dramatic. I found out later that part of I-95 was closed temporarily, just after I had driven through. It rained that hard. This part of the trip was more severe than anything the engineers had arranged. I don't even know how those conditions could be simulated. The next day we disassembled the system and found no evidence of water ever having passed through the element. If I hadn't seen it myself, I would never have believed it.

I suppose one could get anything to break if they try hard enough. But after Sunday night, I wouldn't hesitate to drive a Honker-equipped Corvette through anything that a stock Corvette could drive through.

 

Mike

I like my Honker .... great throttle response. And it looks great !!

My car is lower than 1 inch but not slammed .... do you think I need to worry....it gets driven (but a lot slower) in the rain.


DH

 

DH -
We don't believe your lowered ride height will be an issue.

Many of the Honker equipped cars we run here are 3/4" - 1" lower than stock. Lance Miller's 550+ hp SuperNatural C6 for example.

Great to hear you're back on the road!
mcv

 

Hmm, you always come back with more food for thought.. I totally agree with you that no amount of falling rain will hydro-lock a motor with your intake, or any intake for that matter.. I'm talking about Georgia thunderstorm, puddles deep enough to cause your car to completely loose traction for several seconds at a time, etc.

Granted, since it's not my daily driver, I've never had my C5 in these conditions, and I'd certainly drive with additional caution if I did get caught out..

Admittedly I'll probably end up switching at some point, when I can buy the unit closer to $400 than $500.

 

Southern California doesn't even get rain... not like other places.

 

I installed it this morning/afternoon, let me just say it better perform well.

 

We get some pretty crazy days once in a while ....... last winter was some very heavy stuff

I have to slow way down anyways as I am running wide Nitto R2 tires which have very little thread depth when new ..... or my car will become a hydroplane


DH

 

Thats good to hear. And thanks ....... its good to be back.

And thanks again for the super customer relations helping me get back on the road without unecessary delays.

BTW: I sent you an email but I don't think you got it .... I will call you next week.


DH

 

[QUOTE=Dan_the_C5_Man]Hmm, you always come back with more food for thought.. I totally agree with you that no amount of falling rain will hydro-lock a motor with your intake, or any intake for that matter.. I'm talking about Georgia thunderstorm, puddles deep enough to cause your car to completely loose traction for several seconds at a time, etc.
QUOTE]
It wasn't the falling rain that was the the issue in the impromptu Honker test. It was the standing water on the road surface. It was raining so hard that the water didn't have a chance to get off the road. It was more than just a typical thunderstorm. In fact, one person died that night when she drove her minivan through an underpass (off the highway) and was submerged in what the papers called a flash flood of 8 feet of water.

That night on I-95, there was at least 2 to 3 inches of standing water on flat surfaces. That's where I could approach 55 mph. In dips in the road and in underpasses, the water was at least 5 inches deep, a few areas were much deeper. When I passed tractor trailers, or they passed me, the splash from their tires pushed more water under the car. It's difficult to describe, but I think that most Corvette owners would probably not drive any Corvette in these conditions.

 

I like my Vararam!

 

I like the performance gains of the vararam...but I also thought it looked like a piece of garbage, all hacked up and glued back together, it looks like franken-intake

 

[QUOTE=mcv]
We left Carlisle and drove the northern route through the Pocono's and Rte 84 to Manchester, CT then down towards Old Lyme and east on 95 to Rhody. I have never driven in anything like that before, fog, heavy torrential rain, it was incredible. I am running the Honker and didn't have any problems.

 

It took me easily 6 hours just to get the intake to the point that it "fit" in my car so that I could get the hood to close, including trimming and redrilling the intake. I use the work "fit" quite loosely because it still isn't right and I will need to spend more time modifying it to get it to work. Like I said, the performance is there, but for $300 I would have expected more then plastic shells glued together and riveted to factory fog light shrouds. Even more, I would have expected it to at the very least fit in the car without modifications. The green filter was the only piece of any quality that came in the kit.

 

I think both Vararam and honker have good systems. The vararam quality is a bit to be desired. I have not seen the honker in person but, it seems to be higher quality. But, I do like the Vararam for the fact that it pulls air from a point higher off the ground than the honker.

 

Actually, the Honker pulls air up pretty high, likely higher than the Vararam entry points.

 

is the vararam filter reusable/washable? personally, i specialize in improvisational customizing (especially getting things to fit where they dont' belong) so trimming is nothing new to me.

for those who have the vararam installed, what is your opinion of the performance difference?

also i hear alot of commentary about the honker, i don't think i've seen this for the c5. what makes it different from the other aftermarket intake systems with the oval style cone filters?

 

Just put it on yesterday. Results: +++ with the vararam last night. Avg of .32 second quicker ET and 1.8 MPH faster trap. This is coming from a Halltech Stinger, not a stock intake. However last night was cooler than it had been in recent days (only about 8 degrees cooler) but I would like to run it on a day where the temps are comparable to make a more even comparison.

 

What you can see of it looks fine and to the untrained eye it's very stealth

 

Installed one of the first VR units that came out on my '99 daily driver! Have had absolutely no complaints. (Did change to K&N filter) Car is lowered all the way (on stock bolts) and is driven in whatever the weather happens to be!!