As for CAIs, I too am wondering what to do. I'm a new Raptor owner and am considering a few modifications to "wake the truck up", though I didn't know it was asleep to begin with. It's a bit of a daily driver for me and I'm definitely not looking for speeding tickets, but an exhaust note and better "feeling" and "response" from this truck would be great. Quality over quantity in my mind.
On Huck's note about not having a completely smooth surface, I can see the logic. I too work in the jet "world" and the concept that he's mentioning, boundary layer separation, actually makes a lot of sense. It's the way a wing works. Create a small area of turbulence around the solid surface so the "fluid" can move unrestricted around it. You'll notice on some wings and other places there are vortex generators put in specific places because we want air to flow a particular way around an object. It would seem to make sense then, that a little bit of friction in a controlled manner goes a long way actually. Obviously, you can over do the friction, but the theory makes sense. I'm not an areodynamisyst (if that's even a word), I'm just a glorified button pushing, pressurized aluminum operator and I still look out the window and wonder how the hell that thing works at times.
On Huck's note about not having a completely smooth surface, I can see the logic. I too work in the jet "world" and the concept that he's mentioning, boundary layer separation, actually makes a lot of sense. It's the way a wing works. Create a small area of turbulence around the solid surface so the "fluid" can move unrestricted around it. You'll notice on some wings and other places there are vortex generators put in specific places because we want air to flow a particular way around an object. It would seem to make sense then, that a little bit of friction in a controlled manner goes a long way actually. Obviously, you can over do the friction, but the theory makes sense. I'm not an areodynamisyst (if that's even a word), I'm just a glorified button pushing, pressurized aluminum operator and I still look out the window and wonder how the hell that thing works at times.