Darren, the charge cooler does introduce pressure losses that the compressor has to operate at a higher duty point to over come. However, as you know there are benefits.
Yep I buy that. There was always going to be some trade-off with the chargecooler's 'drag' but I think the trade-off is reliability in flattening out any spikes in heat and consistency ie power should be similar in hot or cold weather. I wanted consistency and reliability.
The normal GTA intercooler does suffer from the 'Little Chef effect'. You pull off the motorway to get a cup of tea and a toasted tea cake. Try to get back on the motorway slip-road 15mins later and the car is far more sluggish till it gets some air flow going and cools again.
Now you either ate too many tea cakes or it's heat-sink!
Obviously said effect isn't just limited to road-side cafes