A question on Turbo inlet pipes

Firstly this is probably in the wrong section as it relates more to Turbos in general rather than supra specific but is still valid for Supras.

Anyway my question is why do we all use hard (metal) pipes fitted between the Turbo intake and the filter. It generally means that especially those in the NA-T world we come into clearance issues and also means you are limited to where the pipe and subsequantly intake filter can be located.

When i was researching my viper kit car build i came accross this

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?safe=off&sa=X&biw=1600&bih=703&tbm=isch&tbnid=I74EKD5DyhjSzM:&imgrefurl=http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php%3Ft%3D324166&docid=Blj7iYJ7sRPPuM&imgurl=http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv267/rapid25_2009/hallenborgsviper064.jpg&w=1024&h=683&ei=n397UtK3J-re7AbYs4GoCA&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=188&page=2&tbnh=153&tbnw=229&start=29&ndsp=40&ved=1t:429,r:51,s:0,i:241&tx=132&ty=102

This is an immage taken from the Hallonborg Viper, a twin turbo LS type motor running about 800bhp.

As you can see they are using a flexible intake pipe to allow their filters to be positioned anywhere they wish, if this was done in the supra it would allow me to position the intake filter behind the drivers side front bumper duct for a better cold feed.

The questions i have are :- has anyone any experience with this to shed some light on it, is the pressure inside the hardpipe dependant on the flow/size of the turbo and/or the restrictive nature of the air filter?

The problem i see is it the turbo spools and creates a vacume inside the flexible feed that could crush it from the inside, starving the turbo or more importantly causing debris to enter the compressor and killing the turbo.

Cheers guys and sorry if this appears at face value to be a stupid question/

This stuff is pretty flexible, must be up to the job too.

the shape and profile of intakes are important, as irregular shapes (such as the inside of those flexi pipes) can cause vortices in the airflow which hinder efficiency.

i wonder how inefficienct they are really compared to a normal hard pipe.

On the other hand they allow for a better cold air feed so may have benefits in other areas.

Anyone know what the bendy stuff is called?

As no two setups witht hat pipe will be quite the same, it's impossible to say. TBH if this is for your NA-T, i'd stick with a stock TT airbox and SMIC.

i was thinking of using it for the NA-T. But i was more curious why i hadnt seen more setups like it. I already have a hard pipe and FMIC rather than SMIC and TT airbox