Is ABS plastic good?

My friend laughed when I told him what my ram intake was. It's a Spectre. They make custom intake tubes that you can combine to make an intake. I told him how much they cost and told me there junk and wont gain anything from it. The filter was an average amount, 24.99, but the 3" tubes were about 12.99 a piece. They look crome, which I was sorta fooled, because inside there made of abs plastic. Was I ripped?

The joke's on your friend buddy. ABS is tough enough to be part of mechanical automotive parts like idler pulleys. The good thing about using ABS for intake is due to its insulating properties even at high temperature ranges. So it will perform much better at keeping the incoming air cool = a bit more HP. The downside is, it doesn't look as cool as chrome, and that silver stuff they painted on will probably crack (the stuff is originally black). On the other hand, if you scratch something that's black, you won't be able to tell. Keep in mind, you can't run a cold air intake with this stuff because it insulates well. Chrome needs to have a cold air intake because it absorbs heat from the engine bay like crazy.

what do you mean you CAN'T have a cold air intake? of course you can, all you need to do is route it to somewhere cold. since it insulates better the cold air intake should be even more effective.

Oh yeah it would be even better. But think of it this way. Is it worth all the rerouting if the material is so good at insulating that it won't allow more than a degree of variation in temperature of the incoming air. It's all about effort vs effectiveness. What do you think? Of course, some people put in all the effort to squeeze out every last little bit, but I'm too lazy for that.

now one thing you've got to wonder is how well does ABS flow. it doesn't seem as smooth as most metals so does it cause more friction?

i imagine that it is polished somewhat
i might be wrong tho