the cold air feeds thing is the actual myth.
They dont flow air fast enough, even at high speed, to feed the engine with all the air it wants. The paltry 2.5" air feeds have almost the same diameter from front to back meaning loss in velocity and pressure due to friction. Your engine bay at the same time, has the same pressure because of the volume of air the front bumper picks up - possibly higher pressure with funnel-shaped vents like the abarth bumper has. This means that the actual speed of the airflow through the air feeds is MUCH less than the speed of the car.
as such, the air filter will still pick up most of its air from the immediate proximity around it - nearly all of which happens to be 20+ degrees hotter than the ambient temperature. That's 2bhp+ lost immediately. The stock air box at least sucks the air up from somewhere cold to start with, and the restrictiveness isnt as large as people think. The end result is that those k&n type intake setups with air feed pipes are proven to lose power compared to stock intake boxes both theoretically, and actually as well, many times.
Yes, a proper cold air intake pipe which relocates the air filter will get warm but the air speed is high in them, meaning at high loads/rpms there is negligble heat soak, even at low vehicle speeds.
The exception is the BMC CDA/DIA type filters, because although they have top mounted filters, their actual airflow all has to come through a sealed air feed pipe from somewhere cold, if it is installed sensibly.
People take a look at these things without considering the mechanics involved.
If you say you like the filter because of the noise, fair enough, but in all likelyhood it is losing power compared to stock so please dont try to claim it increases performance. Placebo effect....
