Front mounts just look mean as hell. I'm not convinced theres much of a performance difference between top or front mount, and if there was I'd put it on the top mount being better.
However, you just cannot beat a big ol' mean lookin front mount. If you disagree, tell me this car isn't sexy:
http://www.cobbforums.com/forums/images/MazdaSpeed3_COBB.jpg
From what I know, the performance difference is centered around the fact that your intercooler is being used to cool air, and a TMIC is sitting ontop of your engine. Not sure about you, but last time I checked, my engine bay is pretty friggen hot. Also, idk about this so correct me if I'm wrong, but when I look at the intercooler housing on the top of the hood, I don't see anyplace for the air to go once it's entered.. seems kind of like a bad design to me. Can anyone shed some light onto our intercooler ducting design?
Of course you can get into the argument that if it's a TMIC, the air has less time to travel less, and so you spool faster.
But you could also say that if it's a FMIC, the air has more time to travel, and thus would compress more and give you more power.
Overall, I believe -- that is, in my opinion -- that FMIC's are better. Perhaps not by much, but they're better.
I've heard that the ETS TMIC stays real cool, like ice, even after hard driving. If that's the case, it's a large improvement over stock.
and OP, what were you saying about tweezers? were the fins bent or something when you got it?
Post pics!
