A while back I purchased a set of Phenolic spacers from Autospeed Performance to use on my car. A well read visitor will note that I have thoroughly documented how the similar phenolic thermal spacers from 034 failed to impress me. So why would I purchase another set of these? It wasn’t to try and prove or disprove Autospeed’s claims that:
- Proven to reduce intake air temps as much as 10%
- Reduced intake air temperatures result in better throttle response
- Maximizes spark advance
- Reducing the influence of detonation
- Overall increased torque and power
Though it would be great if these phenolic spacers managed to do all that for my S4. No, I bought the Autospeed spacers because I had sold off the 034 spacers only to discover a while later that my RS4 Y-pipe did not fit on top of the stock S4 manifold as well without them. I simply bought the phenolic thermal spacers to raise the intake manifold slightly.
As a side bonus I do plan on subjecting the Autospeed product to a similar rigorous evaluation as I did with the 034 product, who knows, maybe the phenolic material Autospeed uses in their thermal spacers is capable of delivering the results claimed.
