Product Review #5 Professional Products SB Chevy Crosswind - how cost effective?

[Dusty]

Product Review # 5

This is where we look at a promising product and give you a preliminary evaluation prior to any in depth evaluation we may subsequently do in our Product Spotlight Series.

Professional Products Crosswind 2 Plane SB Chevy Intake

This two plane comes at a bargain price from Professional Products but does less cost mean less performance?

By

Dusty Kennett

This product review has pretty much come about due to two slightly derogatory remarks made about Professional Products Crosswind small block Chevy intakes. On both occasions it was inferred that this intake was just a cheap copy of another well known company’s intake. At this time I could be accused of being sensitive to any criticism of this intake as I had just used it to extremely good effect on my most recent build – a real power house 350 (which you will be reading about all over the place in GFN for at least a while).

If you read the manifold mania articles (links listed at the end of this feature) by DV you will see that GFN has tested four different ‘air-gap’ style two plane intakes from four different suppliers. These intakes have been in the shop a while and one aspect was very obvious – other than detail differences they all looked about the same. So if the Professional Products intake was a copy so then were the Holley and Dart ones. But there is a saying in engineering that is worth throwing in here as a point of reference. Try this for size – ‘Form Follows Function’. If we wanted the assets of a two plane manifold that also flowed well and delivered a cooler charge just how much different could it be from any of the four intakes tested in our GFN Manifold Mania series? My thoughts here are that it would have to be a revolutionary design to deviate much from that style or pattern of intake. Instead what we have is a mildly evolutionary design. What that means is it is going to look about the same as it’s rivals - no matter what!

OK I hope to have made my point about whether or not we should categorize it as a cheap copy. The next issue concerns the word ‘cheap’. Sure this intake is cheap – maybe the word ‘cheap’ has the wrong connotations – it might be better to say that compared to its competition it is less money. I, as a student like that, but don’t think for one minute that implies typical low cost results. Nothing could be further off the mark here. My own experience with my 350 making 537 hp at 6800-7000 rpm shows this intake can deliver the goods in grand style. Also I looked through some of the other GFN tests and found a 383 that was done about 9 months ago that cranked out 548 hp. Cut it anyway you want this intake is a value for money deal that delivers whole heartedly.

Links to Manifold Mania:

Manifold Mania
Manifold Mania-Part 2
Manifold Mania – Part 3 The Final Chapter, for now . . .


Dusty Kennett