Snokel delete on my 2006 STI

A few days ago a went for a ride in a friend of mines slightly modded 2006 WRX.  The first thing I noticed was how *great* it sounded!  You could actually hear the turbo spool up like I could on my old 1986 Porsche 944 Turbo I had back in the day.  We popped the hood and he had installed a SPT Intake which was the reason for all the extra noise.  Now if you do a little research you will quickly find out that the opinions are all over the place on the intake.  Some will tell you your engine is going to explode and others will tell you its an instant 25hp.  There are enough reports of any intake other then stock tossing CEL (check engine light) that I'd be cautious installing one without some form of engine management (Cobb AP or OpenECU) so you can monitor AFRs.

Anyway, he informed me you could get it to sound almost as nice by simply removing the intake "silencer".

Are you serious!?  What mad scientist at Subaru decided it would be a good idea to shove a toilet in the side of their car?

Anyway, here is what your intake will look like without it:

Yes, those are white wire ties.  Its all I had at the moment.  You can tidy the whole thing up and skip the wire ties if you cut the top off the tolie-  I mean silencer, and reinstall it.  Another option would be to fabricate or buy ($$$) an elbow and place that inside.  I typically like to keep all the stock parts "just in case" so I'll probably go that route.

It sounds like a proper turbo car now, yet its not to overstated.  My wife hasn't noticed or complained about it so that makes it just about right in my book.  Well, for now anyway.  Someday it would be nice if it was so loud you needed hearing protection like Ken Blocks car! ;)