That's different. I've never seen anything like that before. I'm almost sure that it will not help and probably hurt performance. You are moving the filter too far away from the engine.
yes, the air has to travel longer, and with all the bends in the pipe there is more turbulance, thus greatly affecting the increases in power you would get if you just got a Cold air.
One other thing that not too many people know about that one is that there's a plexiglass piece that's in front of the filter with something like a .25" gap between the filter and plexi. Can you say obstructed airflow?