Does "cold air" induction on hotair really make sense?

[6SENSE]

Have any of you actually found a gain from say covering up your k&n cone filter and piping air from outside engine compartment? Opinions are fine but looking more for those who have actually experienced a benefit to performance, or perhaps a negative reaction to performance.

I can see where on an intercooled app that bringing in cooler air coupled with the IC after the heat up through the turbo some of the temp reduction may be retained (couldnt hurt), but on a car with no IC does it really do enough to be worth it once the turbo heats things up? Maybe in the hotair setup it does more bad than good by restricting initial air intake?

I have the ATR coldair kit with 14" K&N that I purchased years back with a bit of a custom setup drawing air through piping going straight down through a hole cut in the wheel well (where charcoal canister originaly sat). I have used this setup for a long time and also took it off a few times and ran with just the open k&n (plus the hole in the wheelwell with 90deg piping below, of course). I did not notice any plus to having the cold air cover on at the time. I think I ran my better times with it off then. Not sure if the coldair setup was directly related or not. In my situation and others with alcohol injection does it cause more of a restriction having the cover on when the alky is going to drastically reduce the aircharge after the turbo anyway?

I ran my new best in sig below with the cold air setup in place earlier this week and am wondering if I would be better with it off next time.
Thanks.

 

[cool 84]

Something interesting I found on my dad's car from looking at the IAT guage is when he floored it, intake temps would go from ~150 degrees down to ambient at WOT. This was without a CAI. On the t-type with CAI, regular running temp seems lower but at WOT they're about the same. With that said, I don't believe a CAI system actually brings cooler temps during full throttle. If it did, it would have to be worth more power. Just look at the difference between the car's daytime and nighttime performance or summer and winter. Whether intercooled or not, lowering the intake temp before the turbo helps power.

I like the old KB system a lot because the shroud around the airfilter is much bigger than the airfilter itself so dirt can blow past the filter, not be trapped in it and if you ever hit water or the intake became a restricion, it wouldn't be as bad.