Originally Posted by ard

Absolutely no way.

First, its a turbo. The air filter is not a significant source of restriction. (Actually even on NA motors, but especially on forced induction.)

Take the air filter out- how much power will you gain? VIrtually nothing, IMO. On a turbo, nothing. On a NA, maybe 2%.

So why put in a "performance" filter?

ALL performance filters trade airflow for filtration- you buy this crap and you let more contamination into the motor. Period. This contamination shows up in the motor oil, increasing bearing wear....

But the "Need to Mod" power is strong- people like to make their car special, and LED lights, air filters, CAIs, and other nonsense are cheap mods that make them feel good about their car. The REAL mods- that change performance in significant ways- are priced well outside the range of most, or require extensive work that they cannot do.

Change your stock, highly efficient OE filter with every oil change (so that you are not running a filter to the end of its life when it is fouled and restrictive) and you'll have virtually the same airflow as a so called performance fulter, but with the protection of OE.