AMS doesn't half-ass a thing. In the most recent Super Lap Battle time attack event, held at the Long Beach Grand Prix this year, the noted Chicago-based tuning shop snatched victory in the Unlimited All-Wheel-Drive class despite electrical issues that had the team up all night chasing down errant electrons. They've built more 900whp+ customer EVOs than any other shop and have a NASA TTU-class time trial national championship to their name.
These guys have a lot of experience making EVOs go very fast. They hold several impressive records, including being the first to reach 1,000 whp with an Evolution, building the world's quickest drag EVO VIII (8.56 at 168 and 1,130 whp with 51 pounds of boost), and winning 9 out of 12 events last year in a national time attack series (also in an EVO VIII).
Their specialties are two extremes in the motorsport world-drag racing and time attack. Both require you to not only get it right, but to get it right fast. Just one blazing fast run can make all the difference between a win and a loss. With stakes this high, it pays to be clutch.
The ride before you is not an EVO VIII, but rather the new EVO X, a car that AMS has yet to set a record with. Martin Musial and his team will certainly need to bring their A-game.
"We'll probably be wrenching until the last minute." Martin confesses. With the release of the X, AMS has had to continue to adapt. "Pretty much nothing carried over [from the EVO IX] to the X. The engine, the transmission-it's all been a new development for us. One of the toughest things has been the turbo kit development-where we need to fit a lot between the engine and the firewall. Heat management has lead to hood adjustment issues, that kind of thing."
AMS is setting the bar at 500 whp, a feat that, Martin says, is "definitely attainable". In preparation for more boost, the block has been sleeved and the fuel delivery system heavily upgraded. But the vast majority of upgrades have yet to be implemented. "We're still trying things out and testing." There is no doubt that the AMS team are experts with the proven 4G63 turbo engine but, with the 4B11T/C engine brand new with the EVO X, development will need to take place. And development testing often times means broken parts, something that the AMS guys don't need to happen at the USCC.
Sporting a full interior and street-tuned Endura-Tech coilovers, this X makes a compromise between speed and comfort. The only modifications to the interior are Buddy Club seats and Autometer gauges. The judges will decide which side this compromise falls on to. On the track, the lightly modified (suspension-wise) X will face the hardest test of all.
To help out will be an entourage of four AMS employees as well as a hot shoe flown in from the east coast. This large support base is sure to give the team an edge on the private competitors.
In the history of the Ultimate Street Car Challenge, five different Mitsubishi Evolutions have vied for the title. None thus far have succeeded. But with the enormous support and experience that AMS is bringing with their new X, we might finally see an Evolution at the top of the food chain. Unless, of course, something breaks or their new formula just isn't powerful enough for this crowd. Sometimes, being a pioneer just isn't all it's cracked up to be.