Here's a link to some decent back to back dyno tests on cars running pod filters, stock air boxes and cold air intakes.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCi2yo4UqPI
 
Basically saying that you lose power in an NA and no real difference in a turbo. The exceptions I believe would be with cars running larger turbo's then factory or much higher boost.
Good to see some back to back dyno runs with inlet temps etc....pretty decent set of tests.

i cant view it, but if thats the might car mods one it is so biased ahahaha! 
there all cheap makeshift quality ones, 

But,  i can say
My standarr mr2, 
went from 92wkw 
to 96.8rwkw 
using the  secret Weapon R cold air intake and running it down to the 'gills'

Using my partners uncles Dyno

Yeah its the car mods one. I'm really suprised you would see a power gain on a NA. When I ran a pod on a NA MR2 it definately felt slower. I tried a K&N pod with a custom pipe. Did you run the dyno test back to back on the same day?
Maybe your stock filter was really dirty.

Yeah,. same day runs. 2 runs each, 
took the average, 

the CAI i used was a stainless pipe, with the filter on the end and with a heat shroud and with a flexible hose connected to the stainless pipe running down to the gills to funnel air

the standard airbox, had a 15000km old KnN panel filter in it, 
so it didnt look to dirty, 

but not only did it improve killowasps, it also vastly improved throttle response

I remember it making a lot more noise and I did feel the throttle response was better below 3,000rpm but from then on it felt like I was losing. Especially when the heat soak sets in after driving for 15minutes or so, definately felt very slow. I ended up swapping back to the stock airbox with a K&N flat panel.
The turbo's and NA's basically run the same airbox so if an NA is gaining from fitting a pod the turbo's should gain heaps but it doesn't feel that way. My cars a Gen 3 turbo witha  decent list of mods and I run a modified version of the stock air box with a HKS flat panel. Even when I pull the intake pipe off if im testing something and run just the turbo it doesn't feel any different at all.

yeah, no idea at all, 
i do want to go backk to an airbox and panel insert, tho anyone got one laying around?

I reckon you could grab an airbox off a different car even, like a ford v8 or something and make a relativley stock airbox if you can't find an MR2 one.
Yeah I stumbled on this clip as I was researching for some quick gains to try to reduce turbo lag. I don't really want to do anything major like changing turbo's or compressor wheels or displacement etc....so I was hoping playing with the intake might get me a slight gain in reducing lag but considering running with no pipe to the turbo makes no difference I dont think i'll find any easy solution there. It's really only tracks like Winton where I notice turbo lag being a major downer.

I got similar results with adding a custom pod set-up on my zzw30 as Gatesys SW20, I went from 95.2 kw to
98.1 kw (both at wheels), I may have gained this only because
1. I am using a K&N Apollo air box and
2. the car was getting tuned that day.
I did back to back runs (3 with each took average) as the tuner kept saying the stock box would out perform the my Apollo box set-up but it turned out the Apollo box did end up producing more
 
Set up one was stock air set-up, Stage 1 cams, 4-1 headers, HF cat and catback plus the timing increased as I use 98 octane; that set-up yielded 95.2 kw and 172nm (At wheels)
Set-up two I replaced the stock air intake with my one I made with the Apollo box and the K&N 57i kit for the zzw30 and it jumped to 98.1 kw and 181 nm (At wheels).
IMO I only think it increases that much was because of the cams and because it was tuned to utilise the pod set-up