I've also been thinking of how I might re-route the stock air intake on my 73 TCS to try and get a cooler air source. My car has the stock Strombergs and the engine is currently out of the car at a rebuilders. I got one idea from one of my other cars, a front engine V-8 muscle car. The "cold air" system on this car has the air filter in a plastic box connected to the mass air sensor and then to the engine. The plastic box has a flexible air intake mounted on the inner fender wall with a hole into the right front wheel well. It's in front of and just above the right front tire.
My thought for the Lotus is to use the stock airbox on the Strombergs and fabricate some kind of enclosure for a filter which would attach to the open end of the airbox. The other end of the fabricated box (also open) would attach to a short flexible hose or 90 degree fitting (PVC ?) and then attach to the inner bodywork, in the area where the emission control plaque is located. I would cut a hole in the inner bodywork and either fabricate some kind of air intake to be mounted on the other side of the bodywork or just put some screen across the opening of the hole.
My goal would be to access the assumed cooler air in the rear wheel well.
I think there are several potential questions with this design -
- Is there enough air entering the wheel well area?
- Assume the air in the wheel well is cooler than in the engine compartment (stock air filter)
- What about debris / water spray from tires entering the airbox?
- Mountings would need to have some flexibility.
The hardware and new airbox may be available already made up ( or easily modified ) from suppliers of aftermarket cold-air systems. If not, the new airbox could be made from either strong plastic or sheet aluminum.
So far this is just a design dream and may be completely foolish. Appreciate any thoughts or suggestions on if this is worth considering.
Thanks
Larry Mullen
1973 Europa TCS
