I have just bought the Mazda 6 2.3 Sport that I've been driving on contract hire for the past 12 months. Obviously as a lease car I couldn't do much to it but now it's mine all mine (and the banks!).

I've never modified a car in my life and this might sound very naive but here goes...

I was pottering about under the bonnet earlier today and saw that the air pre-filter intake amounts to nothing more than a round funnel like orifice about three-four fingers in diameter and with a plastic plate held an inch or two above it (presumably to stop stuff falling in the intake). I was wondering what would happen if I placed a bit of plastic/rubber tubing into the intake and fed the other end to the front radiator grill so that more/faster air was entering the air filter ...

a) Would this do any harm?
b) Would it achieve anything noticeable in terms of performance?
c) What would happen if I sealed it around the intake so that only the higher pressure air from the tube placed on the radiator grill entered the intake?

 

I don't think you'd see much improvement (although you might get a slightly cooler intake air charge.) I think you'd be better off getting one of the off-the-shelf Cold air intake kits available that actually open up the size of the intake flowing into the engine.