Ordered a Superformance Cobra, trying to make some decisions.

[DougD]

I have to smile at all the talk about losing a few HP with different air cleaners. If you have 500 or so horses on tap, as many here do with a typical FE build, you already have more HP than you probably can get to the ground. Losing 25 HP at wide open throttle, when most driving is done at part throttle, on the occasional blast to get your adrenaline going, is arguably not worth worrying about.

HP and torque numbers on an engine dyno rarely measure the same once the engine's in the car. There are just too many variables. Driveability, part throttle response, resistance to fuel percolation, resistance to overheating, etc., are to me more important considerations.

Of course, if you plan to race it, then by all means go for the setup that yields the most HP and torque. But I'll bet you spend most of the time driving around at less than full throttle, and you'll never know the difference if it's tuned correctly and drives nicely.