The AMS Time Attack EVO X build update

Dedication and personal sacrifice. These two words best describe the efforts of the TA-X build team this past week. Many of you have been following the build up of our new AMS/ NOS Energy Drink TA-X Time Attack car. Our first scheduled race was to be this past weekend at Willow Springs Raceway in California. As the build threads have depicted this was a HUGE undertaking. The car was literally built up from a stripped shell of a car. Just about every inch of this car was modified in house in some way shape or form. A build up of this magnitude should take no less than a year…we however were determined to do it in months!

These last two weeks have been trying to say the least. We have been plagued with delays mainly stemming from waiting on parts to arrive. Key components that literally put the brakes on doing anything to the car. Ss of Friday the 22nd we finally got what pieces we needed to so the car could be brought to race condition. At this point the car was still just a caged shell. No engine, no custom wiring harness, no suspension….simply a shell. The challenge was to put this car together and get it in race ready form in just 6 days. The team was to leave early AM Thursday and drive 40 hours straight through to Willow springs for practice on Saturday. The TA-X build team worked around the clock starting on Friday. Literally working all day, through the night and into the following day. Working on just a few hours of sleep at a time trying to make things happen. The individual effort put in by the staff was awe inspiring to say the least. There was no complaining about being tired or beat down, everyone just had their minds focused on the task at hand. As of Wednesday morning things were looking good. Ivan, Eric and Martin had the custom wiring loom done, engine installed, stand alone wired up and even test fired up the engine. Justin had spent countless hours installing suspension, working on last minute ducting and aero work and even had the car ready for its track suspension setup session.

It was D-day, Wednesday night. The team had less than 12 hours to finish the car, tune it, set the suspension and load up. We were not about to give up! Working in shifts the TA-X build team got the chassis to a condition where it was ready to compete. All that remained was the final tune and lastly suspension setup by Justin in the very early AM on Thursday. Martin, Eric Jones, Ivan and Chris black geared the car up for the dyno while everyone else on the team tied up as many loose bits as possible. As the tuning session began problems arose. First the initial turbo on the car was giving us problems so it had to be swapped rather than attempt to diagnose the issue…we simply didn’t have the time. Power was coming on STRONG. The AMS TA-X power plant was showing signs of making unprecedented power on the 4B11. The power curve was unlike anything we’ve seen in the 4G63. The tuning session continued though the power curve was not showing the same gains. Something wasn’t right… digging into the problem further we sourced it to a valvetrain/head issue. With the clock rounding 4AM and the need to swap the cylinder head and still align the car our worst fears slowly came to light. If the rig didn’t make it on the road by 9AM there was simply no way we could make the Saturday practice session. With only 5 hours of time left and roughly 10 hours of work ahead of us…it was time to cut it off. The AMS / NOS Energy Drink Time attack car would not make it to the Redline time attack at willow springs.

A silver lining in every cloud. Although the staggering effort put in did not meet our goal it was not for nothing. Not making this particular race actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. With the extra time we are now able to take the car to the next redline event in the exact condition we wanted to…100%! The information we gained from the dyno will not only help us fix the issue with the head but also add even MORE POWER! The AMS / NOS TA-X will now be faster and handle better than it could have at the willow springs event. If that isn’t enough we get to unveil the car at our home track, Autobahn Country Club! So if you are local you will get to see the TA-X Debut on June 20th and 21st! You can rest assured we will be bringing our “A” game!

I would like to take a moment to personally recognize all those involved in the staggering effort of TA-X over this past week. The amount of personal sacrifice was amazing! At the core of the team people individuals were putting in over 80 hours on the car in only 5 days! Sacrificing sleep, personal responsibilities and well…..a LIFE! The most inspiring thing about this past week is that even knowing we might not of been able to make it…NOBODY ever gave up. Even into the last hours people were still doing everything they can. Even now that the Willow race is out of the question guys are still busting their tails to make the car even better for the Autobahn event. Every day is a new day to be thankful for working at AMS but this past week went above and beyond.

Thank you to everyone that has been following us and this build. We are very sorry for not making good on this race but rest assured we will be at full force come June 20th! Stay tuned today for more pictures and later on even some video of the INSANE effort that went into this past weeks build!

Here are some pics from the progress we’ve made:

Visit our official AMS Time Attack EVO X build gallery to view more detailed images of of the build.