What happens to a stock Mitsu EVO X front mount intercooler after 4000 racing miles? It gets beat. The super thin fins of the stock intercooler cannot handle the debris that attacks it at the front of a car even through a grille. Mitsu attempts to crank up the cooling efficiency and reduce cost by making the fins thin, but durability goes down. This isn’t a problem because stock intercooler cores generally aren’t very good anyway so you’ll want to upgrade when you decide to get serious about power. Stock units are mass produced and are made of lower costing materials in an attempt to reduce cost. They cool decent, but they have pretty massive pressure drop. Sure a stock front mount is better than a top mount any day of the week, but however much horsepower you made with your stock intercooler, you could have made more with a larger well designed unit. It goes without saying to avoid the 45lb. boat anchors from China.
You can even see where the two upper vents are in the front bumper. Realistically most intercoolers will suffer some damage from this sort of use (150mph for several hours), but this thing is beat. Lift a stock intercooler next time you get a chance and see how light and fragile it is.

Source: http://www.beyondthedyno.com/Blogs/Eric/?p=1460

 

interesting...

 

That's bad , some driving you got going on

 

That is indeed beat ***. Imagine if that was rallyX or something, it'd be tenfold worst.

 

I have another stock one if you want it lol

 

crazy eyes & big mouth

 

You should see some of the Ferrari's after the Gumball, they look like the front ends have been sand-blasted.

 

Hahah awesome...what a piece.