[maf 914]

I agree that the first pair of cylinders will see more boost that the second pair in series. But, the packaging works.

Is that an intercooler of some sort on the boost tube? Also, that looks like an AC compressor in the corner. Lots of effort in that installation.

When you look at photos of early turbo installations in various racing classes, for example Indy cars, the intake manifolds were typically very simple. The were often tubes fed from the turbo at one end with individual runners in series for the cylinders. Obviously flow and pressure would not be constant across the length of the tube. But turbos initially offered such a performance boost that no one worried about the details. Hell, just crank up the boost! Once everyone had a turbo with similar performance designers started to refine the details and crudely made intake manifolds became beautifully made carefully shaped and sized plenums of aluminum and later carbon fiber that provided uniform conditions to all of the intake runners.