AMSPerformance.com

Round 4 of the Redline Time Attack series brought a battle to the table many have anticipated since The AMS/NOS Energy Drink Time Attack Evo and the Sierra Sierra Evo were introduced. In this particular race it was AMS that took the crown winning the unlimited AWD class, overall unlimited and overall event champion. TA-X also managed to break the track record by over 2.5 seconds. This was all done with about 540whp and driver Mark Daddio working the reigns!

AMS Performance / NOS Energy Drink TA-X debuts with a podium finish!

This past weekend marked the first ever Redline Time Attack at Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, IL. It was also to be the debut for the AMS Performance / NOS Energy Drink Time Attack Mitsubishi EVO X (TA-X). Just days prior TA-X was in pieces and in its final stage of assembly. The team was able to come together and get the car up and running for the weekend’s events.

Saturday’s testing went very well with the AMS /NOS EVO X getting quicker and quicker. Some new car bugs prevented the AMS team from running the car at peak power. The team was only able to compete at the 450 wheel horsepower level, down from the 600whp level they had hoped to compete at. Each session brought about a new series of changes and tweaks to help improve the car. AMS driver Mark Daddio worked his magic with the underpowered car as each practice session the AMS/NOS Energy drink car got quicker and quicker.

This event brought out some stiff competition but early on Saturday it became clear that the Crawford Performance STI driven by Tarzan Yamada was the car to beat. With 580 wheel horsepower and in its second year of competition was running very quick laps all day. TA-X and the Crawford STI exchanged fastest lap times Saturday leaving Sunday open to either team.

Sunday started out with the TA-X setting the fastest lap of the event thus far in their first practice session. Rain was imminent as the radar showed a storm cell moving towards the track. As the first competition session kicked off once again it was AMS and Crawford within a couple of tenths of a second with the Crawford car edging them out. It would come down to the last session…so long as the weather would hold out AMS had a chance to take TA-X out for one last chance.

Down on power AMS brought TA-X out for its last session of the day with only minutes before the approaching storm rolled in. In exciting fashion both AMS and Crawford once again reset each other’s best lap time with Crawford edging TA-X out on its first lap. It all came down to the last lap. With a blistering first section as Mark Daddio rolling into turn four tragedy struck as the shifter cable on TA-X snapped…ending their session and the day.

In only its first competition the AMS/ NOS Energy Drink Time Attack EVO X was able to take a podium finish. TA-X claimed second place in the unlimited AWD class and second fastest overall lap of the day. What is even more impressive is that it was achieved without the additional 150 wheel horsepower the car will have later on in the season.
After TA-X’s appearance at the Mitsubishi Owner’s Day in Cypress, Ca July 11th, the next race will be July 25/26 at the Redline Time Attack in Nashville, TN. With what was learned over this past weekend AMS hopes to improve TA-X by restoring its horsepower level back to 600, adding more aero and more importantly even more testing time. The AMS / NOS Energy Drink Time Attack car should be back stronger than ever.

AMS would like to take time out to thank our generous sponsors whom without their support TA-X would not be possible:

• -AEM http://www.aempower.com/
• -Aeromotions http://aeromotions.com/
• -BF Goodrich http://www.bfgoodrichtires.com/bfgapp/index.jsp
• -Child Rescue Network http://www.childrescuenetwork.org/
• -Exedy http://www.exedyusa.com/race/
• -JE Pistons http://www.jepistons.com/
• -JRZ Suspension http://www.jrzsuspension.com/
• -Manley http://www.manleyperformance.com/
• -Mishimoto http://www.mishimoto.com/
• -Mitsubishi Motors USA http://www.mitsubishicars.com/MMNA/jsp/index.do
• -NOS Energy Drink http://www.drinknos.com/
• -Prototype Composites http://www.prototypecomposites.com/
• -Status http://www.statusracing.com/
• -StopTech http://www.stoptech.com/
• -StickerDude http://www.stickerdudedesigns.com/
• -Vibrant Performance http://www.vibrantperformance.com/

For more images from the event please visit the official AMS Performance gallery here:
http://www.amsperformance.com/galler…2_itemId=17619

AMS Super Lap Battle Videos
It’s only been a little over a month but finally getting caught up and getting a chance to post up some videos and comments about the Super Street Super lap Battle.

We took our EVO X and in a few weeks turned it into a potent street class car. Using all of our bolt-on’s including a new prototype turbo kit we pulled about 440whp out of the stock engine and took a few lbs out of the car. In the end the car weighed in a little over 3400lbs with me in it.

Being sponsored by BFGoodrich I ran the BFG KD, although discontinued I managed to get a set of old stock. Some people told me I was crazy to run on those tires and I think Robi even said that if I ran in the 56′s it would be a feat! Well they turned out to be pretty decent compared to the new rubber that’s out there from the competition. the qualification session I ran all my hot laps in the 56′s, 1:56.9 , a 1:56.66, and qualified #1 with a 1:56.64 . Unfortunately from there our luck and my skill ran out, haha.
We had the BFG’s mounted on new wheels and apparently the valve stem cores where not screwed in all the way and leaked with the caps off. Between sessions we left the caps off and pressure was way down in a few tires.
I went out for the first session not realizing this and the car pushed badly and just handled like crap. I should have come in and checked but silly me stayed out there and just beat up the tires more.

After coming and being frustrated we checked the tire pressure and realized what was going on. The second session we aired them up and wound up still a little short of our target hot pressure but it was much better. Unfortunately track conditions got much worse (a car lost a motor) and the tires got chewed up from the previous session.
Our car came to California untested and I was rather impressed with Ivan’s and mine ability to dial the car in. Of course input by phone from Mark Daddio and Bryan Hise helped too
With the car still pushing we had to make a big change to loosen her up. We swapped the rear tires on the front, took some rear wing out of it, I changed shock settings, and tweaked the alignment.
last session the car woke up and it was really fun to drive! It was a little loose especially in corner #1, but great everywhere else, very fun and fast to drive. I experimented with corner #1 and even coming off the brakes early and then turning in it still made the back end take off. One more round of tweaks and it would have been perfect.

Overall it was an awesome experience from my end as a driver and for Ivan as a support crew, we both learned a lot and enjoyed the challenge. FWIW, we ran the fastest time in street class in every session besides the first one where track condition were good and we made our rookie mistake. No excuses as racing means a lot more than just a fast lap in practice or quals, it means putting it all together when it counts, and congratulations go to Nils for doing it big and winning the event! Also great job to Ryan Gates for 2nd, it was really fun chasing each other around and cutting our lap times down.

Now for the vids:

Here the nice video Rich put together: see below for more laps and my screw-ups.
http://videos.streetfire.net/video/A…Lap_206611.htm

A hot lap running 1.56.9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WIqF…e=channel_page

A hot lap in the last session where we made our changes, can you tell the difference?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAo-V…eature=channel

Out-takes – drift car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=967L0…e=channel_page

Out-takes – low tire pressure, bad tire chatter, too hot into corner = baja driving
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gtR6…e=channel_page

Out-takes – sloppy driving, over driving , etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNPUh…e=channel_page

1,946 miles and 30 hours across vast plains, rocky mountains, and dry deserts. The drive from our small Chicago suburb to K&N Engineering to was a long and tedious one, but in the end it was well worth it. We accepted our first invite to the Ultimate Street Car Challenge and we came out on top.

When we arrived at K&N Engineering, only one car had arrived ahead of us, our friends at 034 Motorsports and their Audi Quattro Coupe. We settled in and watched as the other competitors starting showing up one by one. The last car, Smogrunner’s EVO VIII, made it literally minutes before the cut off time (with only a few hours notice he was called in to fill some empty spots). After seeing all the cars, we knew winning this thing would be tough, if not impossible. Our Mitsubishi Evolution X is a great platform for this event but with so little development time and being thrown together in a couple weeks we were not expecting a win. Its relative newness meant there was little aftermarket support for the car, so we had to engineer, build, and test our own products in a short period of time.

The first day’s tests included the car show, engineering panel, girlfriend test, drivability test, horsepower, emissions, and fuel mileage. We made only one dyno pull for the horsepower test which netted us 487 awhp. Martin was satisfied with that so they unstrapped the car and we moved on to the next test.

With the exception of the horsepower tests, we weren’t told the results until the next morning. At the start of day two, we were told the tally from the first day. We were tied for 3rd place, some 100+ points behind the leader, Cheston’s beautiful Technosquare 350Z. We knew that was a huge gap to overcome, but the real world tests were still to come and anything could happen. We were banking on what we thought would be our strong points over the 350Z, the skid pad and acceleration tests.

The California Speedway was the site for the skid pad, acceleration, and braking tests. The cars were driven by magazine staff for the skid pad and braking tests, but they allowed the car owners or drivers to run the 1/4 mile. I ran the drag race portion putting down an 11.4 @ 118 coming in second to Smogrunner who ran an 11.3 @ 124 in his EVO VIII. The car did very well in all 3 tests and we were a bit more hopeful about our chances during the long drive thru the desert to Buttonwillow raceway, the site of the final tests. Here we would battle it out on the road course and finish up the competition with the gross display of horsepower. Our hot shoe driver, Mark Daddio, had never seen this track before but he did a fantastic job learning the track quickly and posted up a very good time, just a few hundredths from first place.

Now it was my turn to get the car to make some smoke during the gross display of horsepower, but no matter what I tried to do, it ended up being a gross display of understeer. The car was just so good at being manageable that big smokey doughnuts were not in its repertoire.

At the end of it all, we were fairly certain we had finished runner up. We all hopped in the cars and took laps around the track for the magazine photography and video footage. We were then called back to the paddock to find out what the finishing order was. They called the finishers out in reverse order and to our surprise, they called someone else’s name out for second. Somehow we had managed to pull off an amazing comeback to edge out the Technosquare 350Z.

Our hats go off to Smogrunner though… he tied a new GTR for third place with no preparation for the event. He literally got the invitation by phone, left work and made it with minutes to spare. Congrats are due to Smogrunner and his sponsor Tuning Technologies for a great showing out there!

The 2008 Ultimate Street Car Challenge was an amazing event. We would like to thank our sponsors, without their help we would not have been able to do it. Thanks to Sport Compact Car for putting on such a great event and thanks to the other competitors and their amazing cars. It goes without saying that the 1,946 mile drive home was much easier!

link to a video about this years competition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w80faA96kCU

Specs:

Engine:

Stock Short Block
Stock Head
Stock Cam

Turbo:

AMS Prototype GT30R Turbo kit

Intake/Intercooler:

AMS Front Mount EVO X Intercooler
AMS Upper Intercooler Pipe

Fuel:

AMS Prototype Fuel Surge Tank System
AMS Fuel Rail
RC Engineering 750cc Injectors

Engine Management/Electronics:

AMS Ecutek Reflash
AMS Small Battery Kit

Drivetrain:

Exedy Stage II Clutch
AMS Shifter Bushings

Suspension/Rims/Tires:

Endura-Tech Prototype Monotube Coilover System
Stoptech 4 Corner Big Brake Kit
AMS Corner Weight and Alignment
Nitto Nt-01 Tires 275/35/R18
Enkei RP1 18×10.5″

Interior:

Buddy Club Seats
AEM Uego Gauge
Autometer Sport Comp II Boost Gauge

487 awhp

Special Thanks to:

Buddy Club
Enduratech
Exedy
Mitsubishi
Nitto
RC Engineering
Sticker Dude Designs
Stop Tech Brakes
Tial
Vibrant Performance
VP Racing Fuels