Mission Improbable
By Jason Kavanagh, Engineering Editor | Published Dec 21, 2009
“Beat the GT-R around Streets in the blue Evo. I still want to take my kids to bassoon practice with it, though. And you know how I hate getting my hands dirty. I’m an ‘arrive-and-drive’ kind of guy. Get it right or pack your stuff, Pal.”
3 weeks after the Redline event, I returned to Joliet, IL to run with NASA. I was very happy to place 2nd in Redline Street AWD, as my car isn’t really prepared well for the ruleset. What I really prepped the car for this year was NASA TTB trim. If anyone has been following my threads/blogs I detuned the car from last year and have worked to reduce the weight down to the minimum allowed. Looks like things are finally paying off!
7/18 – 7/19 – NASA Midwest at Autobahn Country Club – South course.
Video of 2 hot laps in my best session; skip to 2:05 for my best lap.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5MB6HAqMKM
Saturday:
The day started off not so great. In the very first session of the day I overheated my brakes; lost them completely and suffered a pretty major off through T11. I was pumping my pedal to the floor and using the e-brake to no avail. Top speed on this section was about 115mph; I went off at 90mph and was extremely fortunate there were only tall weeds to mow down. I ended up sliding down a small hill sideways around a barrier and stopped just before the property fence. Yikes!
I came back in feeling extremely fortunate I still had a car. I did a complete flush of the brake system, completely removed my underpanel I had installed, tried to pull out all the weeds I could.
Only missing 1 session, I lined up after lunch with a dirty car and fired a first hot lap that pushed me to first in class. The weather was perfect; sunny, no wind and low 70′s – great turbo weather! At the end of the day I had a best of 1:36.2 and 1st in class out of 4. I also had the 4th fastest time of the day out of 20+ cars besting several cars that were in TT classes higher than me.
Sunday:
Weather was again gorgeous. I studied my data overnight and decided to ‘brake less’ basically! lol. I also looked and I was .7 away from the track record Sat; so I was pumped. In the first session I had some whacko tire temps, but still fired a time close to Sat’s best. Not many changes here. I corrected the pressures and tried to dial in more front camber. I came away with a 1:35.3 – setting a new track record!
In summary:
1 nasty off; 2 TTB class wins and the TTB track record!
Huge thanks to AMS. I know I have said this before, but the 93oct tune I was running was impressive. I dunno it if was the cool temps or the testpipe I switched to (was a HF cat) but it felt like a beast and I really pulled out from the apexes all weekend. Also helping to put that power down was my Mullerized JIC’s. The car has remained nearly neutral all year with ZERO adjustments to this point from John’s initial recommendations – and that’s with running 4 different brands of tires, 3 different tire sizes and 2 different Ecu tunes with ~50whp differences!
Gates311.com / AMS Performance / Nitto Tires Evo X – Race Report
Event: Redline Time Attack! Autobahn – June 20th-21st, 2009
Redemption.
On June 21st, 2009, Ryan Gates dominates the Modified Class at Round Three of the Redline Time Attack! series. Ryan took victory in the Modified AWD Class as well as capturing the Overall Modified Class Championship with a time of 1:30.7, more than 2.3 seconds faster than the nearest competitor.
After a forgettable Round Two, Ryan was determined to make up for lost time at Round Three. Once back at AMS Performance HQ, Eric and Ivan from AMS quickly got to work addressing the problems on the car. The issue from Willow Springs turned out to be a failed secondary fuel pump, which was caused by an electrical short of some sort. Ivan buttoned up the wiring throughout the car to make sure everything was correct and thankfully the car was back up and running. Testing at Autobahn was next.
We joined AMS on Friday before the Redline Time Attack! for testing at Autobahn to run the car and make sure the car was back to 100%. Just a few short sessions later, we were very satisfied with the car and pulled in for the day.
Saturday was practice day for us running the Time Attack on Sunday. We ran the practice sessions conservatively and focused on chassis setup. Bryan from JRZ was out at the track with us and with just three sessions, he perfected setup with ease. After the third session, we left the car alone and prepared for Sunday’s Time Attack sessions.
Race day came and we were well prepared. In Sunday’s first practice session, Ryan went out to make sure the car was running perfect and to determine his grid position by posting a lap time. Ryan posted a lap very conservative lap, knowing there was much more in the car…about 6 seconds more! Everything was in place, the first Time Attack session was up next.
Ryan was on grid and awaiting the start of the Time Attack session with confidence in the setup. Once on the track and up to speed, Ryan went 100% on his first timed lap. The lap was very smooth and Ryan flew onto the front straight to cross the finish line with an impressively quick lap time on 1:30.781. Ryan took a cool down lap in preparation for the third and final timed lap. The third lap went smooth but Ryan kept it very conservative and posted a time of 1:32. The next closest competitor was 4+ seconds back, with a 1:34.
Ryan sat out the second Time Attack session, confident his lap time was more than fast enough to take the win, and it was. The fastest lap was posted by Sharif A. in his modified R35 GTR, a 1.33.091. A fast time, but still 2.3 seconds behind Ryan’s very impressive time of 1:30.7. With that, Ryan took the victory in Modified AWD Class, and secured the Overall Modified Class Championship at Autobahn. Ryan will be competing again with Redline at Nashville on July 26th, look for a similarly impressive performance.
Ryan Gates would like to thank the following sponsors for their incredible support in 2009:
More photo’s and a preview of a full video (coming soon!):
Video:
http://videos.streetfire.net/video/A…f-ce145a0cb573
Bryan from JRZ and Ryan, happy with the setup and the win
After taking a year off AMS Performance returns to Time Attack with a newly build Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X. The car debuted last November at the Super Lap Battle Finals where it took second place in the street class. Over the winter the car has been transformed into a full unlimited race car and its set to compete in the Unlimited AWD class in the Redline Time Attack series.
For more information about the car, the team and the list of events visit:
http://www.amsperformance.com
AMS Time Attack racing program is made possible by:
-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/
As I am sure most of you know we have been building an EVO X time attack car. Well just recently we released a short statement about the effort put forth by our crew to get the car together in time for the latest race. For one week straight day and night they worked around the clock to finish the car. The work and dedication put in was nothing short of inspiring. The end result is a car that so far is testing out to be everything we had hoped for.
Most of you remember the video where we tore down that brand new EVO X to start the build on this latest Time Attack car (http://videos.streetfire.net/video/A…O-X_204768.htm) Well in that same fashion we thought we would give you a fast paced look at what went into the last week of the TA-X build.
Here is the video of the AMS/NOS Energy drink Evo X during its final few days being built!
Event: Redline Time Attack! Willow Springs – May 30th-31st, 2009
A Tough Weekend
After weeks of preparation, I made the solo trek from the AMS Performance headquarters in West Chicago, IL to Willow Springs Intl. Raceway in Rosamond, CA for Round Two of the 2009 Redline Time Attack! Series.
Upon arriving to the track late Friday afternoon, I set out to run a few test laps with the new setup on the car, that included a prototype AMS Turbo kit, an AMS built rollbar, AMS Carbon headlights, a Carbonetic Triple Carbon clutch and a new Voltex front lip. The car ran beautifully for a total of 3 laps, until the test day was shut down. Heading into the Saturday practice day with Redline, things were looking positive.
Saturday morning arrived, and the track was green at 9:00 a.m. for the first practice session of the day. I was one of the first on track, but after two short laps the car’s ABS system and S-AWC system randomly failed. Entering Turn 3, unaware of the issue, I was hard on the brakes and spun the car while locking up the brakes. No damage occurred, but I immediately headed into the pits to check the issue.
After looking over the car, no solution was found, but the check ABS/S-AWC lights were gone. I headed out for the 2nd practice session with a positive attitude. Unfortunately, the car still wasn’t running correctly. After completing a warm up lap, I resumed full speed. That same lap, while running hard thru Turn 9 the car lost all power causing the steering to lock up along with the engine shutting off. Luckily, I was pointed straight and was able to coast off track.
After being towed into the pits, I searched for the cause of the problem. Over the next 7 hours, I tried everything possible to get the car to start to no avail. With the track was closing, I headed back to the hotel confused and hoping for a solution before the Time Attack sessions on Sunday morning.
Back at the track early Sunday morning, I was on the phone with AMS President, Martin Musial, desperately trying to figure out the problem. Unfortunately, the cause of the problem (electrical?) couldn’t be found in time to compete in Sunday’s Time Attack sessions. Trying to salvage something out of the weekend, I was able to get the car moved into the front of the spectator area so the car was still in front of the public eye all day.
So after a 30 hour drive, I was only able to complete a total of 5.8 laps on track, none of which counted for any points in the Time Attack. Looking forward, the main focus is to get the car back up and running before the next Redline Time Attack! at Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, IL on June 20th-21st, 2009. We’re confident the car will be back to 100% and will be in even better condition than ever before the Autobahn event. Look for plenty of very strong finishes in the near future.
I would like to thank the following sponsors for their incredible support in 2009:
