Crafted from Prepreg Carbon Fiber, the airbox serves 2 objectives - to seal the filter against engine bay heat and to provide a dual cold air feed. Since the airbox is positioned next to the exhaust manifold it is crucial for the filter to be fully sealed so we designed the airbox to encapsulate the filter and at the same time provide a large internal volume. To seal the intake tube we have designed a laser cut plate with a rubber sealing strip which secures to the airbox. The intake tube passes through the plate and the rubber seal ensures heated air does not enter the airbox. To further minimise heat soak, there is an additional heat shield with a gold reflective layer on the exhaust manifold side which effectively combats the radiant heat transfer.
Having a fully sealed airbox results in the problem of having a restriction for the cold air feed. The stock airbox draws air from a single duct which extends to the front bumper area. During development we identified another area to draw cold air from which was a gap between the wheel arch and the chassis on which the airbox sits. To utilise this feed we extended a scoop at the back of our design which protrudes into the wheel arch and can even be seen after installation behind the front wheel. This second feed allows the turbo to draw from a larger area therefore reducing the restriction. Since the scoop extends into the wheel arch area we also incorporated an internal splash guard to deflect water away from the filter. The animation below shows both feeds and also the internal splash guard.
Our final consideration was for race applications where our optional headlamp duct is used for maximum cold air flow. We incorporated a removeable panel on the side of the airbox facing the headlamp so that when the optional duct is used, this panel can be removed for another direct feed of cold air to the filter.