Sorry for never updating on this. The project was abandoned because no one had time for it. ART was busy fabricating turbo kits for Skylines and R8s, and I was busy working on my 3-rotor swap in my RX-7.
We did solve some of the issues that people brought up:
#1, there were people who were worried about the foglight placement of the intake filter and the possibility of sucking up water. We solved this by installing an inline "bypass" filter at the top of the piping (same height as stock airbox). This means the system has two filters, a primary one at the end, and a secondary one in the stock location. If the bottom airfilter is ever submerged, the suction from the motor pulls air from the "bypass" filter allowing air to enter the motor, instead of water. Even though it wasn't a concern of mine, we decided to come up with this solution in case ART ends up producing more of these.
#2, we came up with a billet MAF mount that installs in a narrower diameter section of pipe, which ensures the calibration of the sensor is not affected. We found that the size of the intake piping was not an issue EXCEPT at the point where the MAF sits, because too much air was going around the sensor instead of though it, causing the ECU to think the engine wasn't getting enough air.
The pipe actually makes the car sound a bit deeper and slightly "throaty". I ended up not running it on my own car because the wife didn't like how it made the car "louder" and since the CX-5 is technically for her to daily drive, she wins that argument.
I'll talk to ART and see if they're interested in dyno'ing the final version, but truthfully I think they're too busy and not interested in making any more since they have a lot of other projects on their hands.
