Did Porsche restrict the air flow like this for a reason?
 

It is very possible that I am missing some really smart engineering by Porsche here, so I am sorry if this is obvious and I am missing the point :confused:

Whilst working on the air intake on my racing car I was aligning up the factory grill minus some bars to get a feel for how the air flow is moving into the filter - and I am really confused by what I see.

This can not be good for air flow? Include to this the fact that the bottom two grill bars are solid. the air can only enter from the top half of the grill and then it is directed into the side corner before winding it's way down to the entry to the air box.

What am I missing with this design???

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1324326264.jpg

hummm...this is how it should be looking like:
10min. Boxster "de-snorkel" Hack! :: Car & Lifestyle Forum

Yes, look at this picture taken from the thread you linked to - see how far to the right the grill sits in the opening. Most of the air that comes in via the scoop and threw the grill is aimed at the top right corner and not directly into the channel to the air box

http://www.pcars.us/albums/1532_porsche_cars.jpg

Porsche claimed some of the HP gained on the 2003 models was due to the modified intake grill.

My assumption was this was done for contaminate reasons. I know there were quite a few people who still melted their airbox with a cigarette. Usually it would be an hour or so after parked and the paper filter finally ignites. The airboxes stay surprisingly clean though for such a direct side scoop intake, and I blame it on this goofy swirling zig zag design.
For a race car that youre always wrenching on, I'd clean up that airflow. You're not trying to keep cigarettes, leaves, paper, bags, and little children's arms out... Our LeMons 944 uses a headlight flap to channel air to the factory airbox. After a 16 hour "enduro" we get a fair amount of marbles and crap on the filter (easily knocked out on a shoe) but nothing that would bog the car down.
I'd wanna see the filter looking through the vent if I was going all out?

This is the assumptions I came to as well, and as such have made some alterations - I can now see the air filter threw the scoop - still not 100% straight line, but better than the factory version :)

I will see how this runs for the 2012 season, but already have a altered design in my head that moves the actual filter closer to the outside and gives a true cold air intake configuration...

Intake duct profile
 

I noticed on my car a while ago that the profile on the intake ducts are different on each side of the car. The one for air to the air filter has a ridge around it whereas the one for cooling air to the engine has a smoother entry profile.
At first when I spotted this I thought maybe one got damaged and was replaced with one of a different profile on my car. This I found was not the case, why, I looked in some Porsche brochures at a couple of cars and they were just the same as mine, (new car brochure). The intake profile to the air filter had the profile with the ridge.
I wondered why until I looked at this post, because to me they both should have a smooth entry profile.
It looks like it was done to deflect debris going into the air filter, I think someone mentioned lighted cigarettes etc. So there we go has anyone else noticed this.

Intake profiles
 

I forgot the photos here they are below.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1324848594.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1324848646.jpg

Yes, and here is the answer
Right & Left Dust - RennTech.org Forums

Air intake duct
 

Well done Chris, its good to know these things.

Cool, stuff. Had not noticed the two sides were not the same.

To minimize water going into the intake - I removed mine. The passenger side is just cosmetic.