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The issue with WAI. . .is it just forces you to drive more economically.
A Prius can be driven and get mid teen mpg. With its limiter hardware it also tips the driver's habits towards eco friendly driving(fuel economy data, atkinson engine, and so forth).
If you put a rather strong spring on the back of your gas pedal. . .you would get alot better FE too. Not because the spring is magic. . .but because you subconsciously aren't going to push it down as far. . .because its hard and we're lazy(or at least I am ^_^).
Yes the throttle plate is obviously the biggest restriction to most cars most of the time. . . but its alot like running two pumps in series. The first pump is a bit more powerful(the ram scoop) and the second one still turns(because you are still powering it) but its under much lower load. So it requires less effort to turn over the second pump(the cylinders on the intake stroke) if you are pushing the fluid right up to it.
Yes you are likely to lose FE with a ram air intake because you have more available power so at any given depression of the accelerator(gas pedal, right pedal whatever) you are going to use a little more fuel. If you just now got into the car and are very ecominded and self-conscious about it. . .you can get better FE. If you've been driving it. . .well you are used to pushing the pedal down to X to achieve Y speed. Now you push the pedal down X and you achieve Y+Z speed where Z is the extra power to acquired from the slightly larger amount of fuel and air at pedal position X.
Its rather obviously true. If we consider the simplest available system(sort of ^_^) Diesels. . .what do diesels do to get awesome FE. Cram a ton of cold air into the cylinder. . .but they don't usually have throttles. The effect of adding a scoop to a gasser would probably be dwarfed by the effect of adding a scoop to a diesel(if it didn't have a turbo. . .lol).
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