Ne need to PM on this one. This is good information that everyone could benefit from. To address cost of our CAI vs others (not just the brand you mentioned) I can answer that without even talking about superior design and performance and answer it simply from a manufacturing stand-point.
-Our boxes and intake tubes are aluminum and are each TIG welded by hand individually $$$
-They include a lid that includes a clear view window and spring loaded quarter turn fasteners $$$
-The filters are our own design which require their own tooling and manufacturing as opposed to a standard cone filter that anyone can just purchase $$$
-The intake tubes are ceramic coated inside and out which is a entirely different manufacturing proccess $$$
Basically we have more materials and labor hours (as well as more expensive materials) that goes into the manufacturing of these systems when compared to many on the market. The way we manufacture is based of our design, which is engineered specifically for optimal performance. I hope this answers your question.
Well first off thanks for purchasing our system. In reference to your post (which you are completely entitled to) I would have to respectfully disagree with a lot of what you are saying, and I would
back up those disputes with many hours of thermal imaging, hundreds of dyno pulls, testing of intake air temps, flow bench testing, flow simulations on the intake tube, and some basic engineering principles. Let me address just a few things that you made mention to:
1. The whole "heat soak" issue and the metal being hot to the touch, and using metal as opposed to plastic that you mentioned...the intake tube is supposed to be hot to the touch because the ceramic coating that is applied to the inside and outside of the tube is stopping the heat from soaking through to the intake air! We don't care if the outside of the tube is hot, we care about the air traveling through the tube. Why do you suppose all of our intake air temps are low when the system is ever tested,
it's because the heat is not soaking through the ceramic coating. All of the thermal imaging and intake air testing proves this theory.
2. Taking the lig of the system
. The whole point of the design on our system is to block the hot air from the engine bay and pull from the cooler air outside. If you want to increase air flow, relocate the washer bottle, don't take off the lid. You can forget all the ceramic coating now because you are allowing the system to suck in hot air from the engine bay right from the start. The only time your car could ever benefit from taking the lid off is if the hood was open, which is irrevelant because you don't drive with the hood open.
3. The filters...I could write abook on this one but I am going to keep it short, well I would love to see the testing behind that filter vs ours for your Camaro. We designed that filter for the Camaro specifically, I can guruantee that our filter flows better than the one you put on there. We have hours of flow testing that will prove a oiled filter will flow better than a non-oiled filter. Not to mention we designed a smooth bore tube stop and velocity stack that greatly increases flow, and I can promise you that your filter does not have those features because it is our own design!
4. Coating it yourself with 3 additional coats of "ceramic paint"
We use an industrial ceramic coating rated up to 2000 degrees that is baked on in an oven at 400+ degrees.
Your black system was already ceramic coated inside and out and then received an additional powder coat over that! Once its ceramic coated properly inside and out the job is done. I doubt that a spray can of "ceramic paint" from the local autozone had the same results as our ceramic coating proccess.
Like I said, you are entitled to your opinion and I refuse to get in a back in forth on this one, but when someone reads your posts and has questions regarding why we do what we do I want them to realize we have a lot of engineering and testing that goes into and backs up our intakes other than just what people feel. Again, no hard feelings, but its my job to educate on our products and this one was needed.