1992 Mustang Coupe And Intakes - Making Waves

ASince the Typhoon is more of a street/strip manifold than the Cobra, its real competition in this test was the Trick Flow Track Heat. AFM retails the Track Heat for $450, which is certainly affordable, if a bit more than the Typhoon. As fate would have it, that extra $100 actually buys you a bit more power. The Track Heat posted peaks of 338.2 hp at 6,000 rpm and 329.6 lb-ft of torque at 5,000 rpm-again, the peaks of the Track Heat were 200 rpm higher than those of the Typhoon.

We warned you that Rick Anderson is always trying to cook up new speed parts on his dyno, and the wild card in this test is a Typhoon upper modified by AFM. Rick calls it the Twister because you can twist the motor a little higher. For $568 ($626 polished) you can buy a Typhoon upper from AFM that has been cut in half, shortened, reshaped and welded back together. You'd still have to buy a lower for $140, or you can bolt it to your existing Edelbrock Performer or Performer RPM lower. Naturally, the shortened Twister gave up a touch of torque and picked up a bit of power over the standard Typhoon, registering peaks of 340 hp at 6,000 rpm and 328.6 lb-ft at 4,900 rpm. 5.0

On the Dyno

Is it any wonder the Typhoon has become the best-selling intake at AFM? With a bargain price and performance that exceeds the Cobra and hangs with the Track Heat, it's an impressive piece. Based on our prior supercharged intake test ("The Runner Volumes," Apr. '02, p. 37), we can only assume the medium-runner-length-style Typhoon will readily perform in a blown application. It's interesting to note the Typhoon gives up only a bit of torque to the Cobra in exchange for much better top-end performance. Meanwhile, the Track Heat definitely biases the powerband to higher rpm. Regarding the Twister, it's obvious any of these intakes could benefit from that kind of modification, but Rick felt starting with the ultra-affordable Typhoon made the expensive modification much more attractive to the end-user.