Joe, performance intake grates have taller rails (which improve handling in turns, and reduce cavitation by feeding water straight into the pump even during hard turns), and direct additional waterflow to the top of your pump... this is what the little wing in the performance intake grates is for actually, it forces some of the incoming waterflow to the top of your pump more evenly and fully loading your impeller.
There is a slight additional drag due to the little wing directing waterflow to the top of your pump, BUT this is offset by your impeller getting a better bite of water (ie. being fully loaded all the way around rather than having most of the waterflow going to the lower 2/3 of the impeller... now you have water 3/3 of the way around your impeller, and much less cavitation). Ergo, the slight increase in drag is offset by your pump becoming significantly more efficient. If you don't want ANY drag at all then you should take your stock grate out completely and run without an intake grate... will handle like crap cavitate and be impossible to drive straight or turn true, but you won't have any drag from an intake grate then! ;-)
I ran my RXT for about 2 hours of operation with the OEM intake grate before pulling it out and installing an R&D Aquavein performance grate, much much better handling and holeshot that'll stretch your arms out! Now keep in mind that I did the intake grate AND impeller upgrades at the same time of the winter months and didn't ride it with just 1 or the other, but the 2 upgrades really made it a monster on the water went from mild to WILD I've been much happier with the perfomance upgrades (and don't forget to fill those ride plate bolt recesses... they're seriously a drag it's easy and cheap to fill them with marine epoxy and sand them flush with the ride plate).
As far as why I chose the R&D Aquavein, quite simply it looks very similar to the performance intake grate I have in my Sidewinder jet boat (similar wing design, as opposed to the RIVA performance intake grate which looks backwards to me but probably does the exact same things).
- Michael
