INTRO + SPOILER ALERT
Thinking about a cold air intake? They look good and sound aggressive—but if you’re expecting real power gains, spend that money on tuning. Let’s break it down.

WHAT’S YOUR GOAL?
If you want actual horsepower and better performance, your stock airbox is doing the job just fine—especially with a quality drop-in filter. Modern intakes are engineered to flow more than your engine will ever need. Aftermarket options are mostly about sound and appearance. If that’s what you’re after, great—just know that’s what you’re paying for.

MARKETING HYPE VS. REALITY
Intake companies love to advertise gains like “up to 30 horsepower,” but those numbers usually come from unrealistic dyno tests—with the hood open, giant fans blowing cold air, or from tuning changes that have nothing to do with the intake itself. That’s not real-world driving. On the street, most intakes offer little to no actual power gain—and in some cases, you might even lose power from pulling in hotter underhood air.

MODERN ENGINES LIMIT THEMSELVES
Modern vehicles (especially anything built after 2007) use torque management in the ECU. This means the computer is actively limiting how much power the engine can make, even if you bolt on better parts. Add a higher-flow intake, and the ECU might respond by closing the throttle, dialing back boost, or retarding timing—all to keep torque and horsepower within factory limits.

So, unless you tune the ECU to raise or remove those limits, your upgrades won’t perform like they should. In fact, your ECU could fight your power mods and cancel out any gains you were hoping for.

THE EXCEPTION
The exception is forced induction. Turbocharged and especially supercharged engines are sensitive to inlet restrictions. Any bottleneck—like a narrow intake tube or a restrictive filter—can limit performance. The ZL1 Camaro, Z06 Corvette, any Hellcat, and the GT500 Mustang, respond very well to larger intake tubes and filters. In these cases, the price tag actually reflects performance—not just sound or appearance.

That said, tuning is still required to take full advantage of these upgrades. The factory ECU will still scale back throttle, timing, or boost if it detects airflow exceeding the stock torque limits. You will notice that most intakes for supercharged vehicles require a tune. With the proper calibration a high-flow intake on a forced induction setup is a great “HP per $” upgrade. 

THE BOTTOM LINE
If you want a meaner sound and a nice-looking engine bay, go ahead and get the intake. But if you’re chasing performance, a proper ECU tune will always deliver better results than bolt-ons alone—especially on turbocharged or modern torque-managed vehicles.

Skip the hype. Tune your car. Unlock the power it already has.