I am sure many of you might wonder what it takes to turn a regular, bone stock- as it came from the maker EVO X into a dominating fire breathing Time Attack monster such as our recently unveiled AMS Performance / NOS Energy Drink Time Attack EVO X. Well today Speedhunters has a special treat for you as I am going to take you behind the scenes and show in detail how our time attack evo came to be.

So this is in fact our time attack evo as it came to us from Mitsubishi and as shown by the look on Eric’s face ( the sales manager here @ AMS) we were truly ecstatic to jump into the project.

 
However it wasn’t right away that we decided build the X into a full unlimited AWD time attack race car. Shortly after its arrival the car was outfitted with a basic set of bolt on upgrades (including the sacrilegious trailer hitch)  and prepped to compete in the FireBall Run 2, - a transcontinental rally focusing on finding America’s missing children.  Fireball rally organizers work very closely with The Child Rescue Network and for the event each one of the 100 teams was assigned a missing child case.  As part of the challenge the teams drove from Baton Rouge Louisiana up to Grand Rapids Michigan unlocking clues and competing in various challenges while passing out missing children’s posters. We’ve continued to work with the Child Rescue network after the event and today we help to raise awareness by displaying missing child posters in our showroom as well as on our car. 

After the Fireball incident we’ve decided to dig deeper into the EVO x and prepare it to run in the 2008 finals of the Super lap battle in the Street Class. We knew that in order to be competitive we had to do quite a bit of more work to the car; after all we had some pretty steep competition which included one of our own sponsored drivers Ryan Gates with his well accomplished EVO X. We had about a month to prepare and no time was spared; the car came back from the fireball rally on a Saturday and 1st thing on Monday it was up on the lift being outfitted with more goodies. Among the long list of modifications we added a prototype of our cast manifold turbo kit with a GT30R turbine, more upgrades to the fuel system such as our Surge tank, fuel rail and larger injectors. The car also underwent a weight loss regiment which included lightweight front crash bar, rear bumper support, AMS AC delete kit, AMS Carbon-kevlar roof skin, SEIBON Dry carbon trunk and hood, SEIBON Carbon fiber wide front fenders, lightweight Buddy Club racing seats and removal of sound deadening materials which trimmed the car down from 3800’s to a respectable 3100 lb area. Suspension and braking departments also underwent a makeover and the car was outfitted with JRZ Triple Adjustable racing coilovers, various suspension bushings along with Stoptech 6 piston brake kit up front and 4 piston in the back. The stock drivetrain was upgraded with a cusco 1.5 way rear differential and an Exedy Twin carbon clutch. The combination was good for about 450 all wheel horsepower which in the end resulted in a second place finish in the competition.

It was after the Super Lap battle event that Martin the owner of AMS decided to push further with the car and EVO X was scheduled to undergo a complete transformation into a full unlimited AWD race car. Right of the bat we knew no time could be spared as we only had 6 months to build the car! Most would call it crazy but Martin and the rest of the team love to take on a challenge and building such a new chassis into a race car in about half the time it normally takes was perhaps the biggest one the AMS team has ever faced. Two days after the EVO was returned from California Martin dedicated the project to our top guns Justin Wylde and Ivan Phibbs and the wrenches started turning immediately! After nearly 48 hours the evo was stripped to its bare chassis and ready for acid dipping.



The result of acid dipping stripped 31 pounds of weight from the chassis and gave our team of fabricators a blank canvas to work with.



 After the acid dipping process unnecessary metal and brackets were trimmed of the chassis resulting in 153 lbs of weight savings.

 
With the chassis gutted into Swiss cheese we begun working on the cage. The main hoops also acted as bracing to prevent the chassis from tweaking off spec while undergoing weight reduction and fabrication.


 
Rear doors were completely gutted and reduced to just the door skins which would be bolted onto the chassis. The Glass was also replaced with AMS Lexan windows.

To aid rigidity the entire chassis was stitch welded.

Among the long list of chassis work we also modified the vehicles sub frames to allow the unibody to mount ½ an inch lower compared to stock height resulting in much lower center of gravity and huge improvements in handling.  Rear floor panels were also eliminated to make way for the rear door exit exhaust system and future diffuser.

The fabrication team with collaboration our friends from Prototype Composites also designed a prototype wide body kit which we may implement on the car later on this season.


 
To aid weight distribution and driver protection the rear seat was moved all the way back, also Tilton pedal box made its way to the car along with a Woodward Collapsible steering column.


 
A set of AP air jacks was also installed to help get the car up in the air at the events.

 
Next framing for the fuel cell was finalized and the team begun designing the custom fuel system

 As the fabrication efforts moved forward more of the cage started to take shape and the seat bracketry along with a custom shifter housing assembly were also finalized.

 
Framing and pannels for the rear of the car were also completed and the car was almost ready for the dual rear door exit exhaust system.

 
The trunk area along with the fuel cell was boxed in both for safety and looks. 

 With most of the interior fabrication work completed the team turned their attention to the engine and power train area. An AMS build sleeved engine complete with a prototype AMS CNC head and a prototype cast manifold v-band turbo kit made their way to the engine compartment allowing the fabricators to work on pluming and cooling solutions. 

A few days later intercooler piping...

...and radiator air ducting to the have taken shape.



With the engine in place the team also was able to rout the exhaust system.

 
…and one of the main reason behind the design :D


 
The air ducting directing the air out of the radiator and out through the hood was also finalized.



 Next step was to paint the car and with working under such a short deadline we decided to prep the car and paint in house in our make do paint booth in the dyno room. It was pretty great to see everyone from shop hands to sales staff all come together and help to prepare the chassis for paint. It was truly a group effort to get the car ready.



After the exterior paint was done we had to make a few minor changes to the interior of the car and then we arranged to have the interior painted.

 
Now came the fun part of wiring up the engine. Besides the connector very little was retained of the factory harness and a custom harness was made utilizing mil spec connectors.

Custom CF hood and trunk by Protoype Composites had also finally arrived.



The car literally looked like an apple in a middle of an ant farm; it was simply swarmed with people working on it.



 Finally the car was completed wand ready for its first start up…. There was definitely a lot tension in the air.

Assembly time lapse video:



After the successful start up a few minor tweaks were done and the car was moved to the dyno for its first tune. Unfortunately after an all night tuning session a turbocharger problem surfaced forbidding us from making the May 31st, Willow Springs Red Line Time Attack event. The team was bummed out however there was simply no time left to obtain an identical turbo, swap it out and make the trip from Chicago to California for the event.

  
That gave Justin and the team a little more time to further prepare the car and do some more tweaking. A suspension potentiometer system was  also installed on the car.

An oil cooler duct was also added to the combination.

 
Interior of the car was all buttoned up as well.

This is how the car looked going into its first testing session at our home track the Autobahn Country Club in Joliet. 

 The team has spend two days testing in preparation for the round 3 of Redline Time Attack which to our advantage was also at the Autobahn Country Club, our home track. The car ran flawlessly through the testing sessions besting the track times set by our previous time attack EVO VIII, more commonly known as the AMS TA1.  We were very excited heading into the event knowing we could be competitive.

The car finally made its official debut on June 20th during the practice day for the Round 3 of the Redline Time Attack at Autobahn country club in Joliet. Everyone from the shop made their way to the event to see the car unveiled to the public and I must say it was hard to believe that the car was finally completed and about to compete in its first event. After a weekend long battle with Crawford Performance STI a mechanical issue with shifter linkage landed us in 2nd place which in the end is not really all that bad considering it was the car’s first completion. As can be expected with a brand new car, a number of other small issues have also surfaced during the event forcing us to run the car at about 400 All wheel horsepower instead of the 600 level we ran during testing. That gave us a lot of confidence heading into the Nashville knowing there was still a lot left on the table. 

 
The Nashville Event finally allowed us to showcase the car at its full potential. Piloted by the skill full hands of Mark Daddio we battled the Sierra Sierra team all weekend and we were able to take home first place in the Unlimited AWD class and the overall champion title of the event with an official timed lap of 1:01.296 and set a new track record for a lap in competition at the Nashville Super Speedway by nearly 2.5 seconds!

 
Looking back at the build of the car it makes me feel extremely proud to be a part of such a dedicated team of professionals. Every single person here at AMS has helped out with the build and the car represents the dedication and the competitive spirit that is AMS Performance.

Rich Karbowiak at AMS Performance

AMS would like to thank our sponsors, without whom none of this would be possible:

•    -AEM
•    -Aeromotions
•    -BF Goodrich
•    -Child Rescue Network
•    -Exedy
•    -JE Pistons
•    -JRZ Suspension
•    -Manley
•    -Mishimoto
•    -Mitsubishi Motors USA
•    -NOS Energy Drink
•    -Prototype Composites
•    -Precision Turbo
•    -Status
•    -StopTech
•    -StickerDude
•    -Vibrant Performance