dynojet

Audiation - the ability to listen to or play music in your head without physically hearing any of it.

Just by reading notes on a page of sheet music, talented musicians can hear the music in their minds. Truly gifted musicians can hear a relatively complex piece of music played once and then repeat it, perfectly, note for note, on their preferred instrument. That's talent. It's hard to teach that to just anyone. This is the concept of audiation.

I bring up this musical analogy to illustrate a point. These skills are engrained and conceptualized deep within their psyche and motor functions just as deep as breathing or walking. We, gearheads, have our own concepts that are as commonly used and seemingly simply as notes on a page. But how often do we think about what they really mean?

Mad Mike's Insane quad-rotor, twin turbocharged MX-5

What does this have to do with this twin-turbocharged, quad-rotary ND Miata piloted by professional drifter "Mad" Mike Whiddet? Anyone can look in this engine

One of the best parts about a small, dynamic company like Mishimoto is that there is never a dull moment around our R&D facility. Change happens frequently, and no two days are the same. At any given time, we've got a solid fleet of engineering vehicles at our disposal that serve as development platforms for our exciting new products, and over time, we become intimately acquainted with each vehicle's characteristics and quirks; each develops a personality and earns its own place on the Mishimoto team. This makes it tough to see them go, but it is always exciting to welcome on a new team member.

This week, it was time for our 2015 Ford Mustang EcoBoost to move on to bigger and better things. We had the car around for a decent amount of time and grew quite fond of it, but our engineers could never quite relax in its presence, particularly when they were gathered in large crowds for meetings.

However, the circle of life has done its thing and presented us with our latest team member, and I

Here we have another update for our 2016 Civic intake project. This Civic has finally been put on our dyno to see how our intake performs - and we have some results to share with our Civic community! This car was tricky to dyno properly because of the continuously variable transmission (CVT), but no corners were cut during our testing. Let's jump right in!

2016 Honda Civic parts dyno testing

The CVT

2016 Honda Civic parts dyno testing

Dyno testing a car with an automatic transmission is always a bit more complex than testing a manual transmission. The ability to shift the gears manually makes it a bit easier to set up a manual transmission on the dyno. With automatic shifting, however, finding an appropriate final gear ratio is not a simple task.

A continuously variable transmission (CVT), has a continuous range of effective gear ratios. The gear changes are more seamless than in a conventional mechanical transmission, which has a limited number of gear ratios. With a CVT design, the angular

We've got another awesome project in the works for the 8th-generation Honda Civic Si! Our recently released performance intake system received great feedback from customers, but it also identified an additional need for intake system components. We decided to develop a Civic Si induction hose made from silicone to replace the stock rubber unit.

Stock Civic Si Induction Hose

Before jumping into the design of our prototype hose, check out a few shots of the stock unit.

Stock Honda Civic parts

Stock Honda Civic parts

The stock hose directs airflow coming through the airbox/mass air flow (MAF) housing to the throttle body. This hose has quite a unique route around engine bay components. Two separate flex joints on this piece allow for the engine movement. These areas of the hose are typically prone to cracking and splitting from oil saturation and extended exposure to heat. This hose features two crankcase ventilation (CCV) connection points that will need to be replicated on our design to

If you follow our engineering blog you may have noticed some recent attention on the 8th-generation Civic Si. Well, we aren't making a push for just this generation. We also want to dive into the 9th-generation and develop some unique new parts to improve this awesome car.

Our first project will be quite simple: to produce a Civic Si induction hose that replaces the stock rubber unit. This upgrade provides improved durability as well as pleasing aesthetics for those seeking some engine bay style. We have seen slight power increases with intake hoses developed in the past, so we will be dyno testing our component to bust any myths around power gains.

Stock Civic Si Induction Hose

Stock Honda Civic parts

The stock intake hose is somewhat similar to the 8th-generation piece, but the shape differs slightly and there is one less CCV port on the 9th-generation hose.

As with our 8th-generation unit, we will be creating a smoother silicone piece to provide unrestricted airflow in this portion of

It has been a while since we have updated this project, but we now have something for our WRX community!

The brief data report below shows our gains with this race intake project and our baseline was a fully stock 2015 WRX with no upgrade or aftermarket tune. The numbers are quite high due to the upgrades already installed on the WRX during testing. These upgrades included our Mishimoto:

• Downpipe
• Cat-Back Exhaust
• Front-Mount Intercooler
• Custom Engine tune

WRX intake dyno testing

WRX parts - dyno results

The graph above shows that the race intake coupled with the Mishimoto upgrades netted peak gains of about 77hp with 88ft-lb of torque, and max gains of about 86hp and 98ft-lb of torque against a fully stock WRX. Considering the vehicle's bolt-on additions and custom tune, we were expecting big gains. Of course, such large gains are possible only with the installed upgrades, but our intake and a proper tune contributed as well.

Regardless of any bolt-on upgrades, it is important to note that

Interested in purchasing our new BRZ/FR-S intake system? Check out more details on our product page linked below!

Subaru BRZ / Scion FR-S Performance Air Intake

After solidifying our product design we needed to capture data to verify the design and determine if any changes were necessary. We strapped our test vehicle to the dyno and began making pulls! Check out a compilation video from the dyno testing. The audible difference in intake tone and volume is quite noticeable when comparing the stock setup with the Mishimoto prototype.

Testing Results

On to the important part, results from our tests. Intake upgrades generally are subject to a decent amount of speculation, because of the outrageous claims often made by component manufacturers.

Here at Mishimoto, we perform extensive, repeatable testing to ensure that our results are 100% accurate and are not skewed in any way. Below are some of the constraints and details for the testing of this vehicle!

• Testing day ambient temperature: 60°F