Removing the elbow will not get you cold air. At a stand still, the engine will be pulling in hot air from the engine bay rather than the fender. Once the VX gets moving, you'll still be pulling in hot air until air rushing through the engine bay from below and through the radiator (hot) lowers the engine bay temp some... which is still higher than ambient air temp.
Don't believe me? Buy yourself a $20 digital thermometer from Radio Shack with two remote temp sensors and a sensor built right into the display unit. Put one probe inside the enigne bay, put the other in the fender and tape up the opening with duct tape (to isolate that air space from that of the engine bay). The built-in sensor will read ambient temp. Take it for a drive on a hot day and have a passenger record temp readings at half mile intervals... and take note of the particular driving condition each readings were taken (i.e. highway cruising, city driving, stop and go traffic, etc.). After the drive, take the data into MS Excel and plot a temp vs distance chart of the three readings, you'll see how one reading correlate to the others. Once you've got your proof, return the thermometer to RS and get your $20 back.
Trust me, the stock intake system is pretty damn efficient. The only reasons I would do a intake with cone filter would be:
1. for looks
2. to free up space for other goodies by removing the air box
3. if I had a supercharger
Even then, I would not consider doing it without a good fitting heat shield. We don't have a "H" badge on our grilles... stay away from snake oil mods.
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