How is it that in old cars the air filter was the most prominent

Because we don't use carburetors anymore? Just a guess

>>16401104

Air used to be dirtier back in the day, so bigger air filters were necessary to provide clean air to the engine.

Nowadays since all the emissions laws and shit, air is a helluva lot cleaner so air filters are smaller and don't matter as much.

>>16401786
>Arizona
>Dust storms almost every day for 4 months out of the year
'k.

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>>16401786

>>16401104

Carburettors for the most part require laminar flow over the booster to meter correctly. Having a vertical inlet with a filter directly above is fairly good at providing this. So the air filter is mounted directly above the throat.

This also means that under hood clearance is an issue so the filter was designed as a fourteen to sixteen inch ring about one and a half to two inches tall to provide sufficient filter surface area.

Fuel injected cars do not require laminar flow after the hot wire MAF and even then this can be achieved by a honeycomb air flow corrector mounted a few inches before the MAF sensor. There can be a convoluted intake tract on an EFI car with little issue. Once the filter didn't have to be a ring element in a pretty poor air box more R&D was put into filter mediums and airbox design that gives us efficient panel filters and air boxes that flow a huge amount of air without restriction for their size.

>>16401786
I hate this board

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Oil bath air filter, thanks VW

>>16401786
fuckkkk

>>16401786
This is why i come back to this god awful place

>>16401882
you're not supposed to know what you're talking about but since carburettors i'll let it slide