GruppeM Ram Air System for Toyota 60 Prius 2.0 HYBRID

I’m looking at the product page and I’m pretty curious exactly how this is different from the stock air intake? This appears to pull the air from the same place as stock, the only real difference being the shape of the filter? Idk am I missing something?

 

The carbon shroud looks to block the intake duct from air under the hood a little better than stock. Otherwise there's just a MAF housing adapter to use a cone filter instead of the oem flat style filter, and the stock airbox gets deleted entirely. It looks nice for show purposes but I'm willing to bet the intake drone with the CVT will get old quickly.



vs.

 

couldn’t we accomplish this with like? A strip of duct tape?

What exactly does swapping out the airbox do? Does it get better airflow maybe?

I’m kinda skeptical about intake mods for the prius considering the stock intake is already basically a ram-air intake

 

Yes 100%

The assumption would be that it flows better. I can say from experience that the stock intakes on Toyotas are rarely as restrictive as aftermarket intake companies would like you to believe. Usually it's just a noise maker.

 

Alright coming back to this thread because I actually wound up buying it



I was looking for a way to get a bit more of a sporty sound from the engine. I didn’t want to go as loud as a catback exhaust, and I didn’t want to diy a cheaper short ram or “hot air” intake.

Install was pretty straightforward: I didn’t need to cut drill or modify anything, and the instructions were clear and easy to follow. You basically just unbolt the stock intake and this bolts right in.

I’ve gotta say, as an aesthetic mod? This thing’s great: the engine bay looks very nice with the carbon fiber, the intake sound is quiet enough under cruise to keep from being annoying, and you get a nice growl under acceleration. Definitely a deeper, more aggressive sound than the stock intake.

As far as performance improvements? It maybe *feels* a little faster, but honestly, I’m thinking that’s mostly psychological. I went with this because I wanted the sound, and because this intake leaves so much of the stock intake intact I was confident it wouldn’t make the car run *worse*. I don’t think the ole butt-dyno is sensitive enough to detect the advertised +10 hp, and I’m not about to put a prius on a real dyno to find out. I haven’t yet noticed any major changes to fuel economy either, but I’ve only had it installed for two days. So, while I don’t expect there to be any meaningful effect on mpg, it’ll take a bit more driving before I can say for sure.

tl;dr: bought the intake hoping it would sound nice, and this intake sure does sound nice!

 

was that really $1200?

 

Sure was! it’s 6 peices of carbon fiber made to order (plus some other hardware for the cone filter swap), so not cheap. Definitely not a practical product/purchase by any means.

I’m sure there are many cheaper ways to get a louder intake sound, but like I said, i saved up for this because I wanted quality parts that wouldn’t hurt the car.

 

I can see a minimal benefit with a turbocharged engine, but with a naturally aspirated one it's not going to make anything happen.

 

Exactly what I’m saying: this is for look and sound, and if that’s what you buy it for it’s very nice (if expensive)

 

To each their own. We all have our hobbies.
You go to those Walmart parking lot car shows where guys lift the hood and show what they got and rev their engines?
We see those quite a bit, and of course we have the LED crowd too. Always fun to look at.