Holley's Sky-Ram intake is a joke, but the real torque figures sure ain't

[Hagerty]

For the past few April Fool's Days, Holley Performance Products has cooked up some great fake products and created some well-produced promo videos to highlight them. For 2022, their bizarre product was an intake manifold with ridiculously long runners. Dubbed Sky-Ram, the manifold was a take on the Hi-Ram, a tunnel ram system that the company builds for several engine families.
https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/holleys-sky-ram-intake-is-a-joke-but-the-real-torque-figures-sure...

[addyboy]

Be nice if they took as much time putting decent gaskets in their other products.....

[67Firebird]

Are straight tubes a necessity ? Snake them around like tuned exhaust inside engine area, no ?
Maybe curves are restrictive ? Maybe this is reality and not as April Foolish ?

[GRP_Photo]

I think this would work well. The same calculations used to create tuned exhaust headers should do just as well with these tubes. As I recall, every time you put a bend in the tube, you cut a certain amount off it. You might wind up with eight 15" S-curves.

[BMD4800]

The Ram effect is muted with curves.
Friction associated with the boundary layers and stuff like that.
Besides, cut the hood. Or get another hood and cut it.

[MR]

The power Sky Ram makes is indeed impressive!
It's a shame however that all that power is going to be used to overcome aerodynamic drag.

[MadamBlue91]

Reminds me a bit of a TPI!

[DanC]

Where is George Barris when you need him! Or would Brad Daugherty or Michael Jordan put this in the NASCAR!

[chrisrod]

Forget George Barris! Where is Ed “Big Daddy” Roth when we need him…

[uweschmidt]

Whats new? We used to tune our Flattrackers with longer intakes for different Lenght Tracks buut also varied the shape and length of our exhaust pipes for better burned gas Extraction Suggestion: put the Carbureter in the Trunck with long intakes ( I bet somebody will)

[TrustyRusty]

Interesting concept. You might want to look up the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt of WWII. It was powered by a huge Pratt-Whitney radial, up front, with long tubes going from and to the turbocharger, which was placed to the rear underside of the cockpit. Similar designs were used on the Boeing B-17 and Consolidated B-24. My favorite usage of the remote turbocharger was in the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, where the turbocharges were situated far behind the 1710 Allisons. Long intake tubes are certainly a tried and true system.

[25aniv]

I think one of these would be the perfect height for a back-up-pickup with the engine set behind the cab. Up in the good air and visual impact...win win! You'd already be pushing a barn through the wind so the torque would be welcomed.
Somebody far better than me with crayons needs to render that one, lol!

[Snailish]

Holley should just send one of Freiburger and Finnegin at Roadkill to test out. They even have two rear-engined trucks that could test your theory.

[RW68RSConv]

Heck Holley doesn't need to send them one -- They'll just tig together a bunch of beer cans together as runners!

[Dstuckmann]

Chrysler proved that in the early '60s with their Ram Induction. It was available on various Mopars from '60-'64 if I recall. The dual carbs were almost on the front fenders and fed opposite banks of the engine via 30” intake runners. Check out the theory and images by doing a search of “Secrets of Chrysler Ram Induction”. What was old is new again!

[BillHanlon]

Working as a 16 year old in the corner gas station. Had a customer with a '62 Chrysler 300H using a 413 with the 30" long ram dual quad manifolds. That thing had a monster mid-RPM-range. Got to drive it from Houston to Austin for him one time. Wow!

[Swamibob]

Those intakes were called the Max Ram. Very cool to see and excellent torque in use. The Ramchargers were doing somethgin like this on their car called "High and Mighty" back in '60 or so.

[drtrcrv8]

This wouldn't look that "out-of-place" on an old "CAN-AM" car, now would it??

[Gary_Bechtold]

They dynoed it. That made my day. I still want to see it in a car just for the final laughs. I still thing it would look great in a top fuel style dragster. With the engine behind the driver it would not look out of place.

[Tycer]

Here you go!

SkyRam video  

[Gary_Bechtold]

Almost there!  Still want my rear engined dragster.

[turbobill]

Now just make the runners telescope so torque can be maintained as it revs.

[TonyT]

Porsche has already done that...

[TrustyRusty]

Yes, the 917-10 through 917-30.

[Roundhouse]

Bmw did it

It was nothing but trouble
, very unreliable .

There a book about modifying Ford 5.0 V8s and in the book they experimented with intake runner length and adding 11 inches to the intake runners picked up 50 foot pounds at 3000 and lost 50 horsepower at 5000
Perfect for a truck or heavier vehicle . Makes you wonder why it’s never been done on a normal vehicle

[Musco03]

Does Chrysler Crossram ring a bell???

[hyperv6]

They’ll g runners is nothing new. It has been an old trick to add torque to an engine. Just look at the old photos of the first Ramchargers car and the home made intake that kind of looked like this. 

even small engines have seen long runners. Many 4 cylinders and even my V6 in my Fiero had an intake that if you unfold it would have some significant intake runner lengths. 

Length  helps but also diameter matched to keep the right velocity right is key with the throttle.  

[Tinkerah]

This opens up a whole world of possibilities for all you guys (and gals? Hopefully some gals too) with a 3D printer and a wacky idea.

[MustangJim]

Now drop that in a car and bring it to cars and coffee!

[BMD4800]

Awesome!

Naysayers: plenty of Hondas at the dealer.

Skeptic caustic types: Actually, this is a modern version of “tunnel rams are good”, but you wouldn’t know that. Balancing carbs is a science. A hillbilly science, but that doesn’t matter.

Purist resto original types: yes, I let my kids eat ice cream in the car. When I’m too old to drive, my kids and their family will enjoy them, just like I did with my grandfather.

So it is with the ridiculous intake. Or the kid who stuffed a ridiculous Honda into an equally ridiculous small car. Embrace the fun, listen intently with the enthusiast and encourage them, and most importantly stop trying to be a sheep with the others.

[Smilodon]

I run a Wieand 2x4 tunnel ram on a
built Olds 455 in Schiada jet boat. Looks all the business with the overtransom headers; at about 2700rpm, I get God's own torque. Up to 3800, the motor will make you either a believer or a quivering mass of panic. With great power comes great hilarity, given the 20" freeboard and almost flat-bottomed hull. I can spin it like a jet ski, donchakno.

[11JA]

I seem to recall the McClaren CanAm M8? having very long tuned inlet stacks ending way above the driver’s heads.

[Smilodon]

I'd love to put this on my '70's Schiada jet boat- I'd ditch the built 455 Olds in a heartbeat. Picture this, with overtransom headers. Simply boss.

[Air_and_Water]

Left brain: It's a cool design exercise that shows intake tuning can be very effective. If implemented in an actual car it would crack to pieces in short order because the extreme length would put too much stress on the mounting points.

Right brain: That is so cool! 😄