Well, after a quick install job done 95% by Cruzmisl I got my Vararam in. Cruz supplied the ramps, tools, and initiative, and I brought the car, product and moral support of myself Road Warrior and MattG :lol:

The install took just about 4 hours and although a hassle, was completed by Cruz with relative ease(I'm sure he'll chime in crying and whining about what terrible labor I made him do, even though DIY'ers like Cruz are born to tinker :D ). Most parts fit fairly simple and lined up well. Using the supplied washers was a tad cheesy so Cruz fabricated his own spacers using some metal tubing. Everything else went smooth. If there are any questions, feel free to message me so I can recollect what work Joe did for me :lol:

We went out to do some unscientific testing afterwards. I am a stock 02 except for the Vararam and shifter, he is an 01 with the omnipresent Stainlessworks headers, blackwing and hurst. I had MattG in my car and Cruz had a buddy of his as well, so we were packing some weight. From a 5mph roll on three honks we went to about 140mph and the 02 was the winner. The 01 had a bad shift at 3rd so some distance was gained there, but from the start the 02 was pulling ahead. We went again and the 01 got the jump and stayed ahead from 5mph to 120 at which point cars appeared. I take this to mean that in terms of power, we are roughly equivalent since in both runs whoever got the tiny jump went and stayed ahead. So my 02 which dynoed at 345rwhp plus the Vararam is right around Cruz's 01 which gained 22rwhp from the headers and an unknown amounth from the blakwing.

The Vararam seemed to allow the car to rev quicker and gave a slight SOTP gain. It's much like when I installed the blackwing in my 01, which dynoed at 320 after blakwing install. Seemed to suck in the air faster, although one can't necessarily feel a 15-20 horsepower difference that much. As I drove home the car seemed to adjust to it's new learning curve and pick up a tad. Overall I'm happy with the product, in terms of quality and what performance I can feel. It'll be interesting to see what it does on the track now. :cool:




[Modified by The DBK, 7:29 PM 7/21/2002]

 

Well rather than whine let's discuss the good things. Realistically the install is fairly simple, the directions could be a tad clearer but overall are pretty good. The Z06 screens gave us a little trouble but otherwise all went well.

If it hadn't been for the torrential downpour on my sparkling clean car and the stifling heat :mad in my garage it would have been fine. Just lots of small parts in very cramped quarters. With my sausage fingers some of it was a bit tricky.

Now on to the races. BOth DBK and I had some ballast in the car :lol: but all in all I'd say the cars are evenly matched. Whoever got the jump held it. I thought I read with a Hurst you'll never miss 3rd.......NOT!

A good time was had by all....next time let's do it when it isn't 96 degrees with 98% humidity :)

Joe

 

:)

RG

 

Congrats on your latest mod. :cheers: It's always a pleasure to watch Cruzmisl work his magic installing mods. :D

Joe, I don't care what anyone says...you're allright in my book for always being so willing to help out those of us who aren't so mechanically inclined. :cheers: :cheers:

Mike

P.S. Glad I was able to contribute during critical processes of the install. ;)

 

"Cruz supplied the ramps, tools, and initiative, and I brought the car, product and moral support of myself Road Warrior and MattG"

Who brought the beer?

 

Good question, although with the heat and humidity we wouldn't have lasted too long in the garage:eek:
Joe

 

Sorry i didn't bring any beer guys, but I figured it was the responsibility of the person who was getting the mod installed! :D

It was a good time, with some great italian food and some high speed highway racing to finish the day off! :lol:

We will do it again soon.. I think its just about time I have a lowering party at my place so we can lower you 4x4'ers!!! :lol: :lol:

 

Congrats and thanks for the write-up! :cheers:

 

Stupid question time.

What exactly is the functional difference between the vararam and any other bottom feeder intake? Well, it looks to me like the vararam has a wider opening. You know, intake ducts going to both the front fog light openings as opposed to one smaller opening that sticks down underneath the car.

One point I haven't heard anyone talk about is the aerodynamics of the C5. I remember this debate from a long time ago, and someone posted that they had talked with one of the chief engineers that built the C5. He told them that the fog light openings were dead space, aerodynamically speaking. No air really moves inside them, even if you take out the plastic inserts. He said to spray some water in there and then drive around as fast as you want. When you're done, the water will still be there. If that's true, then the ram air claims of the vararam are false. No air is getting crammed in there. Of course it still creates suction and pulls air in anyway, but it's not really a ram air system.

Who knows, just something interesting I thought I'd share. I really do have to question whether the vararam is any more effective than the other bottom feeders though.

 

Well I dont really think that the Ram Air claims are any more than what any car manufacturer that slaps Ram Air graphics on a hood is doing. Everyone pretty much knows that unless you are going faster than these cars can go stock, not much air is being "rammed". I remember hearing someone say that that area was dead space before, but then someone chimed in and said a GM engineer or something said that air did in fact flow in that area. Otherwise, the brake ducts would seem pretty useless as well, since they are inches apart.

I'm not into the whole argument of what exists and whatnot, I just want the best available intake for my car. I think the Vararam looks much cooler than the Vortex and is more effective, be it by .5 or .00005, and that's all I care about. Better air breathing is better air breathing, and from what I've seen the Vararam proves faster at the track than the Vortex. Either way, you're beating stock and happy with a nice performanec gain for under 500 bucks :D
:cheers:


[Modified by The DBK, 10:15 AM 7/22/2002]

 

My fog lights were extreemeely :smash: dirty when I installed the Vararam. Would have to be because of the air passing around them through the hole that they sit in :yesnod:

And secondly the brake duct is right there also and passes air through it.

 

I just think for the price difference that I'd want more than a couple horsepower gain. It'd be interesting to know too whether the vararam was more or less prone to sucking in water. I doubt we'll have too many volunteers to test that. :D

 

Well, money is money, and when it comes to cars, you pay the price to get every last tenth. Funny you mention the water thing because it poured like it was the sky's job during the install. On the way home I ran through some wet roads and light sprinkling with no issues at all :yesnod: :cheers: