shorter intake manifold runners?

ok i searched so if this has been answered i guess im not good at searching. What im wondering is why are our intake runners so long? Wouldnt it flow alot better if they were shortened and the whole plenum was mounted closer to the block? Iv also heard that shorter runners would help high end power.

The only reason im wondering is because my brother was telling me how the short tube runners for the ls1 camaros are so much better than the longer ones on his 3rd gen equiped with tpi. He claims they are part of why he redlines at 5500 and the ls1 is above i think 6500.
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I know that chevys and dsm's are very diferent concepts but i was wondering if shorter runners on a dsm could be adapted some way and if you all think it would result in anything. thx

Short runners will lose power in the lower RPMs, longer runners will have more power in the midrange.

there is a sticky in the advanced engine sub forum of dsmtuner that talks about airflow charictoristics between diffrent intake manifolds.

thread http://www.dsmtuner.com/forums/showthread.php?t=111956&page=1&pp=25

test http://nabr.jayntguru.com/shootout

i really dont know how to answer your question. i dont know enough about airflow vr rpm. but i think these two websites will help you significantly with your question.

scott

thx man ill read up on those

Here is the deal on the shorter versus longer intake runners. Longer and skinner runners will give you much more low to mid range power because of the high air speed velocity they create where as the short and fat intake runners will create much more mid to high end power because of the volume of air they are able to move. It all comes down to where you want your power to be made. Hope this helps clear up any misunderstandings