The technology used in the VIPER was first seen on the Lotus 340R, but now Pipercross are making it available for an ever increasing range of popular road cars. The cold air feed takes air from behind the grill straight into the VIPER’s 100mm diameter inlet, swirling it through a unique Pipercross velocity filter contained within a carbon fibre heat shield, and then into a ram pipe to increase it’s pressure before feeding it into the induction system.

More power is achieved using the Viper compared to other induction kits because of two things. First, with the cold feed being at the front of the car, you benefit from the ram effect of the air being forced into the tube. This goes up as the square of the road speed. So you get four times the pressure force at twice the speed. What this really means is that the engine has an easier job sucking the air in, hence making it more efficient and therefore more powerful.

The second benefit of the Viper is that cold air is fed into the engine from outside the car instead of under the bonnet where temperatures are high. Also, the carbon fibre heat shield protects the air charge from under bonnet heat. This means that the air entering the engine is more dense because it is colder and again it is then easier for the engine to suck in the amount of air it needs. So, in summary, what the Viper does is help the engine to gulp in the air more efficiently - hence more power.

This may all be a bit academic but the increase in power using a VIPER against a standard air box will be immediately evident. Just as obvious will be the VIPER's stunning looks - the carbon fibre heatshield connecting the polished alloy inlet to the 150mm rampipe will be the focal point of any engine bay!