I cut out the center section when I first had my '03 GT. Then it was explained that the air is directed to go over the manifold heatshield and the turbo to help cooling. When the rubber is removed the air is no longer directed down to help cool the manifold and turbo, but now goes up and escapes where the missing rubber was. The cooling effect is defeated. I put my rubber back on. I now have a '05 SRT-4 which has the same turbo'd engine as the PT turbo. Nobody with one of these cars removes any rubber and we run a lot more hp than all but a very few PT turbo people do. It seems only some PT turbo people remove the rubber. I've always wondered what the long term effects would be with the rubber removed
