If I blocked the opening to the air box a little won't the vacuum/restriction go up? Is that good or bad for performance? Or if I cut a 3" hole and run some tubing down to the wheel well to help draw some cooler air up to the stock box would that make the vacuum increase or decrease(hint-mine went to 0)? The harder the engine has to work to suck air in the less power it will make. Like I said 8" even 12" won't mean a thing on the street but on a race track when you want to be faster than the guy next to you yes it will, don't forget its not the one thing that makes the difference its all the little things you do that add up to make your car better.

Honda didn't have to make the intake silent but they did(most likely because of a law). I find it funny that some on here buy a new intake and get the noise but none to little extra power just like most exhaust don't make more power.
One more thing, think of vacuum as the opposite of boost. Boost makes power and vacuum takes it away, and it doesn't take much boost to make power.

If I tracked my car I would have a track hood and a street hood, the track hood would feed air from above the hood right into the top of a mostly stock air box(block off the stock opening). I would also have the air cleaner attach to a (6') velocity stack that slip fits into the intake tube. The street hood would get the air from the stock location because I'd have a stock lid on the air box so on our drives when we hit bad weather we don't soak the air filter with water. On the track, open it up and let it breathe.

Juat like MotoIQ did with their little NACA duck on their S2000, it worked and it wasn't sealed up tight, if it was it would have given better numbers. With a hood scoop you get two things, (1) cooler air (2) create some positive pressure at speed.
Project S2000: Part 19 - Ram Air!!! Plus Hot Air Testing!

ROD

 

Update a month in with this mod, I am really Very impressed with the results.

 

my old J's racing type S hood was perfect, it allowed hot air to escape through the open section and the intake manifold and entire intake system was much cooler because of it. The hood also reduced lift, and any water that fell into the opening went straight to the ground behind the radiator, it was near perfect.

When I had my J's racing snorkel with the stock hood I drove 2 hours on the highway in torrential rain at 60+ mph, when I got home I opened the oem air box lid and didn't see a drop of moisture in the box. I was amazed as there as so much moisture being kicked up towards my front end by trucks and other traffic, but nothing was inhaled by the intake.