There is defiantely a place for science, but I'm just not sure it pays at the end of the day.
I somewhat agree with what you are saying here, but if something makes sense to me scientifically, I have a hard time arguing with it in my own head. I grew up in a heavily physics dominated town, and it has twisted my brain into a very analytical one.
In this case of the manifolds, in my mind, the runners should be as close to equal length as possible, and the collector should merge the runners into one as evenly (and as close to the turbine flange) as possible. Anything else just makes my brain hurt when I try to decipher the actual effects of what is going on. You can have runners blowing into each other and/or fighting with each other, turbulence being created in a very much less than ideal spot, etc.
With a well designed collector and equal length runners, none of this is a problem, and the system just flat out works the way it ideally should. Each runner effectively spins the turbine without being hindered by another runner... no need for a real world test to show me this, it is clearly visible in the design.
Whether or not I push enough boost or make enough power to actually see the difference is something I never give any thought, because I want something that will perform in theory as well as it does in actuality. Now, I am not bashing all of the other manifolds here. I just think that everything has it's own place, and to say that one manifold might perform just like another, while disregarding the scientific facts of how gases flow in a system like this, is almost silly.
Where is the point that someone in the real world will see a difference?... dunno... but I am opposite from you guys here when I say that they are very different until proven equal, not equal until proven different.
Just my .02
Perhaps 505 can do a test pull for me. I'll see if he's interested once I have all the manifolds finished.
I would be down to do the pulls, and would also be down to do the wrenching to swap on/off/on/off/on/off manifolds, but I would demand that a disinterested third party witness everything, and that the dyno runs were not paid for by me. Just so nobody tries to say anything about the validity. Not sure who could fit that bill around here in ol' New Mexico... hell, I can't even get a small mazda bbq going here in the biggest city of the state, haha.
I would also prefer that the test car had a built motor and good EMS so we could all see the results at different boost ranges all the way up to 300+ whp. My car does not currently fit that bill unfortunately. I also do not plan to purchase another manifold, so someone else would have to provide the other manifolds for the testing at no cost. Looks like I might not be the best option here, but I am open to discussion on all this.