agreed. clean paper filter will flow whatever the engine requests. should be a negligible to non-existant hp or fe gain. the k&n is nice since it will flow for a long time & won't get clogged as fast as the paper. also, it's a lifetime filter with a cleaning/re-oil every 50K or so. just be careful not to overoil as that could destroy the maf sensor element - a problem that plagues the vw/bosch maf's (my other car is a vw). i would suspect our maf is of better quality.