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Actually flipping the air cleaner lid wouldn't neccessarily make the car "slower". But it would make it run not quite as good and create more emissions until the engine warmed up. Also it would increase engine wear due to the longer warm-up period. The "snorkle" on factory air cleaners that taper down to a small opening was designed simply to silence the noise. It does that by restricting airflow. When you hear a performance car accellerating, alot of the noise you hear is actually the induction system sucking air instead of all of it being exhaust noise. Flipping the lid equals more air, and since an engine is simply an air pump- in general more air equals more power. Alot of the factory muscle cars came stock with an open element air cleaner with no heat involved whatsoever. BUT- in order for the more air to really help, it should also be accompanied by an increase in jet size to allow the air/fuel ratio to remain optimum. The cars that came with the open element air cleaner had carbs jetted to take this into account. The kid who flipped the lid on his dad's monte carlo generally didn't mess with the jetting, and really didn't gain much other than noise.....but then, when you're a kid, a "loud" car is a "fast" car, right? Too bad most kids these days are more interested in the noise coming out of their subwoofer speakers than they are in the noises their engine makes....
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