You make me laugh Craig, so fired up over this.
You wanted to know surface area so I gave you some unbiased maths.
Since you are directing at me:
No, I don't want the standard airbox as I already have the intake sitting in my garage.
The reason I went for a pod is because R2C don't make panel filters. From what I have seen their filter medium is the most efficient, best filtering, re-usable, dry filter on the market (at least that I could find).