1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to an air filter adapted to filter air passing through a scoop which is mounted over an air intake system such as a carburetor, fuel injector or throttle body of a vehicle.
2. General Background and State of the Art
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a scoop 10 designed to direct air to a traditional air filter 14 mounted over an air intake system of an engine such as a carburetor, fuel injector, throttle body or the like. Air enters through a front opening 12 of the scoop 10 which is filtered by the traditional air filter 14 before the filtered air is provided to the air intake system. The air filter 14 is mounted over the air intake system such that the air filter 14 fits within the neck area 18 of the scoop 10. The design of this scoop 10 is such that the size of the air filter 14 is limited by the space available near the neck area 18 of the scoop 10. In some applications, no filter is used so that unfiltered air is directly provided to the air intake system.
The scoop 10 is generally used in high performance vehicles such as race cars. The scoop 10 is generally designed to direct as much air as possible to the filter 14 to enhance the performance of the race car. In some instances, race cars can reach the speed of 160 miles per hour or more in a few seconds. At such high speeds, there may not be enough surface area in the traditional filter 14 to intake the air flowing through the front opening 12. In addition, the flow rate of the air through the front opening 12 of the scoop 10 may be so high that the air flow path inside the scoop 10 from the front opening 12 to the filter 14 may become turbulent such that air may not efficiently flow from the front opening 12 to the filter 14. The air turbulence within the scoop 10 can dampen the amount of air provided to the filter 14. The air turbulence within the scoop 10 can also cause the air in front of the front opening 12 to stall such that the area around the front opening 12 acts as a boundary layer or wall. This increases the drag on the car, in particular at high speeds. As such, there is a need to increase the flow rate of air through the scoop 10 and to the air intake system while minimizing the drag on the vehicle.