Lining up your radiator with the air flow isn't really the most important factor in dissipating heat from your intercooler, espesh in a 7.
In fact turbulent, slow (to a point) flow through a radiator / intercooler core is more efficient at transferring heat to its surroundings.
As with many things in 7s, especially in the nose, packaging is going to heavily factor unless you don't mind the look of modern 7esque interpretations like Donkervoorts and Daxs in which case you can place radiators / intercoolers in pods and lumps and bumps and optimise airflow without worrying too much about the look.
After I turboed my 7 - my own personal take on it is: Pick a light, good sized intercooler in budget and do your homework as to fin, plate, bar construction and pressure drops and fit it best you can in the nose with some kind of seal to the inside of the nosecone - expanding foam / aluminium / composite / plastic. Then imagine air flow paths, not just exposure to frontal area. If you have no air exit path, pressure builds in the nose as road speed increases and once that pressure is higher than the air pressure either side of the nose, approaching air simply flows around the side of the nosecone and your intake / water temperatures may rise quite quickly.
Ranked in order of best cooling, I tried these:
1) Flared Side Panels
2) Traditional Bonnet Louvres
3) Side pods and ducting
There'll be other methods but you'll have to decide which is the acceptable compromise between all those 7esque car building factors!
Post up pics of what you go with
GEoff
