KEY POINTS TO INTERCOOLER DESIGN
An intercooler is not ground breaking at all, but Perrin's core is different and made to a level different than the competition. When they built their core, they made it as big as possible (not going to 4" thick which is a bit too thick) and still using the FULL opening in the bumper. 4" Intercoolers do work, but the downfall is the thicker it gets the less effective it gets. Given 2 cores with the same volume, a thinner core that is bigger in all ambient directions is better than a super thick one that is smaller on the ambient side. There was enough room to make it 4" thick but it does make it a very tight fit between the bumper and AC condenser. So some of Perrin's descision had to do with fit.
So if you look at our core you can't really even see welds because Perrin made it as wide as they could (while still fitting between the AC lines and being able to connect to the boost tubes). Wider is better as there is more ambient cooling surface. Because of the high IC inlet temps, a bigger core on the Ambient side is important. The hieght of their core is also as big as they felt would still be functional. Perrin could have gone taller but its just that much less of the core that gets air flow. So they made it as big as they could.
Perrin size of core is
PERRIN 20.75" x 12.375" x 3.625" = 930 cu-in Ambient cu-in 256cu-in
Brand-1 18" x 12" x 4" = 864 cu-in Ambient cu-in 216cu-in
Brand-2 20" x 12.4" x 3.625" = 899 cu-in Ambient cu-in 248cu-in
Perrin didn't purposely make it bigger than others, they made it as best they could, which just happens to be a little bigger.
Perrin found the OEM isn't centered at all, so they fixed that (which is something not everyone has done). The core is not an off the shelf core, its one they designed, and had built. While that does add cost, it does make Perrin's that much better. Next up is the cast endtanks. These are also more expensive to make but flow better and look way nicer! This is not something people do initially on a new core because of cost. But this is the one thing Perrin feels makes their part stand out from the rest.
There are lot of factors that go into making a proper intercooler, price, fittment, installation ease, size and functionality. Perrin feels they have a very good balance of all these things.