Rebel: Two reasons I think;
1. I am not great at 3 dimensional geometry, but I suspect that there is sufficient room between the front of the airbox and the underside layer of the sloping hood to accomodate a duct of any decent cross sectiona depth
2. The whole idea behid what GM did with that airbox opening was to separate rainwater from the air before the air gets sucked into the engine. This works because the air makes a sudden turn UPWARD as it enters the airbox opening, and the heavier water droplets cannot "make the turn" and get plastered onto the vertical surface behind the opening. Any duct that draws in outside air should be shaped so that it too draws the air UP while separating out the water.
If you look at the after market Corvette air intakes, whether "bottomfeeders" or "topfeeders", they make provisons for this same issue.
What I think MAY work is to run an intake duct from the engine across to the passenger side behind the rad, and down to that flat empty plate that I suspect WAS the battery tray before GM realized the engine heat under the SSR hood would bake the battery (yes!). Cut a 4" or so diameter hole in that plate. Fasten the duct to a flange around the hole and bolted to that tray. On the OTHER (bottom) side of the tray, mount another flange onto which you can fasten (via ss hose clamp) a large cone air filter. Now, you are drawing air from in front of and underneath the engine compartment, isolated from preheating by the tray, but in FRONT of the wheel and tire, so it's clean. Since it is drawing UP, no water ingestion unless you try to ford a (deep) river.
If someone builds one, I'll test it.
Jim G