Yeah they are twin SMICs on the BAM engine. The inlet manifold has the throttle body on the other end so the boost goes through the left hand cooler then the right hand cooler before it goes into the manifold. You could fit a BAM manifold and a pair of SMICs but the throttle body wiring would need re-routing and the cost of the manifold and 2nd intercooler would be almost as much as a cheap FMIC.

The SMIC on the Octy is pretty well designed and has a plastic funnel behind the grille insert to make sure as much air as possible is getting to it but its a purely a question of not enough surface area to cool the air which with a stage 1 map is being pressurised to over 1.5 times what it is on a normal map.

I did look at fitting a B5 S4 side intercooler but I seem to remember it was actually the same part as what the 1.8T has already. The B5 RS4 ones were slightly better but only in that they had metal end tanks.

There must be somewhere in the region of 100+ Mk1 Octy VRS owners on here I just wish someone would read one of these threads just before they get a cheapo intercooler and be kind enough to have their car dyno'd before and after so we can all see the results, standard SMIC vs eBay FMIC.

All I know from experience is the standard side mount intercooler is not good enough for anything other than a standard car, it seems everyone has to take a gamble when they choose what FMIC to go for at the moment :(

I am considering getting one (mainly due to having no arch liners so any wheel debris showers my smic) but the local weekly meet happens to be at a running RR so i may splash 30 quid out tonight on a run then again when the fmic is on

as said im not after going fast when fitting one so im not fussed hugely on performance gains as long as it works still haha

Lets hope my car will get on the rollers without subframe clearance issues haha

Nice one Luca... gunna try and have that!

no worries dude