All I have to say is..Look at cars that use fmic vs smic...
Front mounts....
Dodge srt4's
Mitsubishy Evo and vr4
Hondas
Acruas
More ricey cars I can't think of

Side mounts..
Porsche
Ferrari
Lambo
Getting the picture?
All front mounts do is make teenagers say "oooh ****, dat things turbooo"

To the post above, all those SMIC cars you listed are REAR ENGINE CARS. Putting the intercoolers in the front of the car would be completely impractical. Of course they're side mount. There is no better place to put the intercooler on THOSE cars. The best place for the intercooler is determined by efficiency. You cant say that a side mount is better than a front mount or vice versa. In reality the BEST placement is front mount, in a V layout, with proper ducting and less plumbing. That way the intercooler gets full air flow without hindering airflow to the radiator. Unfortunately space limits that option. Side mounts limit you in size and the stock intercoolers are only going to be able to dissipate so much heat. What a lot people dont realize is that making the jump to a more efficient high boost turbo is going to bring down temps more effectively than upgrading their intercooler. When you start pushing more boost through a small turbo it becomes less efficient and produces more heat. So people install a larger intercooler and loose even more of that efficiency. You can upgrade your turbo/s and stick with the stock side mount intercoolers and probably end up with lower intake temps then if you upgraded your intercooler and just raised the boost on the stock turbo/s. That of course has it's limitations and with enough boost you'd eventually need a larger intercooler to dissipate more heat.

So in the end, where you place the intercooler is dependant on your setup, the space you have available to you, and just how much intercooler you need.

I disagree, too much unused space in center front of my Z. Front mount all the way!

I love bringing back old threads. Isn't it funny that the fastest street z32 now runs a fmic on his car?

It's actually because it allowed him to have the shortest and straightest IC pipe routing, that and he has a drag car, if he was running a roadcourse his setup would be very different.. . . . . . But how many race cars (not a strip or dyno queen) do you see just stacking coolers in front of the radiator? None, they tend to use SMIC's so they can properly duct the incoming and outgoing air and two SMIC's can provide a cooler air charge without sacrificing airflow through the radiator.

If you're referring to Greg Dupree, he runs a TDM Works FMIC, which is actually two sidemount intercoolers welded together. This maintains the benefits of the cross-flow design, while allowing the larger surface area and charge face of an FMIC. It is the only intercooler with this design, to my knowledge.

And as hoov said, it was built for the quarter mile... cooling isn't the hugest concern with you're only full throttle for 10 seconds or less.

That you where dead.

<<< Immortal.