Back in May, we brought you an advanced look at the Vararam VR-X manifold prototype. The manifold, first displayed to the public at Camaro5Fest, drew a lot of interest, but development has been slow. Today, though, we have new dyno video of the manifold being tested on an LS3 at the School of Automotive Machinists.

The video is interesting because it gives a closer look into the manifold’s modular construction, with separate runners that connect to a short adapter section that mates them to the head, and O-ringed connections on the other end to meet the plenum. Previous information from Vararam indicated that the baseplate/adapters would be cast and the rest of the manifold would have composite construction, but in this 3D printed prototype intake, the entire structure is plastic.

The net result of this test was an additional 15 peak horsepower compared to the factory stock LS3 manifold, with as much as 37 horsepower and 40 pound-feet more “under the curve.” Per Vararam, the intake also outperformed a popular competing aftermarket manifold, again by 15 horsepower at the peak, and 21 horsepower and 34 pound-feet “under the curve.”

Per the video description, “We had HP left in this test at peak RPM (about 6-8hp) on this test engine combination. We will revise the air horn combination used to extract the additional power from this very common stock cu/inch, stock head engine combination.” Vararam also promises dyno comparisons to other aftermarket manifolds on their website soon, so keep an eye out…