Part II: Daily Driving Performance
To evaluate "daily driving" performance I logged my temps/ect. during my weekly commute. I divided the commute data into morning and evening data sets. The intercoolers were run in back to back weeks, but on average, the ambient temps the week with the Wagner were a bit cooler (for the plots the two closest ambient temp runs were chosen).
My commute is about 18 miles with about half city streets and half freeway. The freeway has a hill in it that rises about 486ft in 2.2mi one way and 531ft in 2.5mi on the other. On the initial part of the freeway in both morning and afternoon commutes traffic is moving slowly, including going up the hill. I only hit actual freeway speeds about the last 3-4mi on the freeway.
Morning Commute Temp Plots
In the morning temps you can see that the ATM has a consistent temperature advantage over the Wagner. That said, in city streets the advantage isn't much. Of note, large spikes in the CACT temps during city street driving is due to no airflow while sitting at a stop light. I wouldn't read too much into the magnitude of it, or the difference in it between the ATM and Wagner since it falls so quickly once the vehicle gets moving again.
Evening Commute Temp Plots
Ambient temperatures in the evening were higher, especially where I live. City street commute speeds leaving my office are usually pretty slow, and the temps show both intercoolers performing roughly the same. My guess is the speeds aren't high enough to push enough airflow through the ATM to show an improvement over the Wagner that's seen everywhere else, such as the second city street section.
One interesting thing to note, is that where the CACT over ambient delta is rising is when I'm in traffic going up the hill, but the peak is when I'm going down the hill coasting (well, coasting and braking as there's still lots of traffic). Temps don't start falling till I reach constant higher/normal freeway speeds, instead of the 15-40mph fluctuations before that. The Wagner doesn't show any advantage in dissipating heat over the ATM in lower speeds or higher ones. Once again, any sharp, short spikes are the temps while sitting at a stop light, which dissipate quickly once moving again.
A Note on Lag
Measurements elsewhere have shown that the Wagner EVO 2 Comp should flow a bit better than the ATM. Paying attention to lag while accelerating from a stop, and also watching my fuel economy meter seem to confirm that. Accelerating form a stop my fuel economy meter drops to about mid to high 8mpgs with the Wagner. With the ATM it's in the low 8s. The lag is slightly more with the ATM, but it's not large and annoying, and if you're not paying attention to it, probably won't notice a difference from the Wagner. How much of this is due to actual internal restriction, and how much is due to pure volume (the ATM is larger) is a guess to me. I did notice that the ATM uses rounded header bars in the end tanks on the core to help flow (the Wagner has nothing special on the core).
It looks to me like the ATM is the superior intercooler.