After my tough weekend at Road America (see this thread: https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...d.php?t=361622), I had some issues that needed to be handled before heading to the Super Lap Battle at Road Atlanta this past weekend. I drove straight from Road America to the Hilton by AMS and camped out on Sunday night. At 9 AM on Monday I showed up at AMS and told them the issues and wanted to see what they could do for me. Even with their incredibly busy schedule, Eric was able to fit me in! Thanks again man!

The fuse blowing issue was an easy fix, there was a frayed wire from the stock boost solenoids rubbing on a metal bracket and any time I hit rumblesrips or jumped the curbing, it would hit the metal thus blowing the "Engine Power" fuse.

Next up was to flush the Radiator and put a mix of distilled water and Water Wetter in hopes to keep everything much cooler. We also had the new AMS radiator hoses installed to help with the issue, they are super slick! Everything worked great this weekend, even in the ATL heat, the coolant temps stayed perfect and were extremely consistant, much different than before where they would jump really high after just a few hot laps. Here's a few shots of the new hoses:

I also needed some gauges for the car, being a track car it's important to know whats going on with the car. I had put doing this off for so long, I finally caved and asked them to do a nice setup for me. I had them install an A/F gauge, Boost gauge and an Oil Temp gauge. I went with the Stri gauges they had instock and I love them! They are really accurate and very smooth, they also match the stock gauges very well. Pictures dont really get the color perfect, but its a near perfect match in person. I had the Boost gauge and the A/F gauge mounted on the column with some carbon gauge pods and the Oil temp just to the left on the dash. I'm not a gauge guy, but I gotta say it was nice to have peace of mind out on track! A few pics of the setup:

Next was the brakes. The brakes have been sooooooo much better with the prototype Girodisc rotors on all four corners (I'll have a full writeup on my thoughts on the Girodisc setup later), but without a brake cooling kit, the fluid still tends to boil near the end of a 20 min session. I have tried a few different Motul fluids but none of them could last a whole session, which was very disappointing. So I stepped up to the Castrol SRF fluid that AMS had instock and also had them install their new AMS S/S Braided brake lines in hopes to cure the problem. Guess what, that new combo worked stellar this weekend at Road Atlanta! The brakes worked the whole 20 mins, which is quite a feat at this track, some of the hardest braking in the country going into turn 10 at over 145+. I don't have any pics of the lines, but they look pretty similar to any other S/S lines haha.

After everything was done, I took it for a shake down drive around the block. Everything worked perfect, the gauges are placed perfect! I did notice the A/F was a little lean after going to a test pipe. I asked Chris if he could do a quick re-tune, but he had the ECUtek all packed up to ovenite to Martin. He was kind enough to unpack it and make a few adjustments in the parking lot. After 5 mins he said to take a quick drive. I did and everything was back to good, he managed to get the A/F's back to the conservative high 10's/low 11's like usual....amazing for not being on the dyno and sitting in the hot sun!

A few people had asked to see how the new wheels fit, so here's a fitment shot for them:

All the work turned out great this past weekend, I was the top qualifier for Street class in the Super Lap Battle, I set another track record for TT-A, this time by 2.9 seconds! Everything is coming together on the car in preparation for NASA Natl's in Sept, see you all there! Here's a vid from Road Atlanta on street tire's I don't have my video on the Nitto's uploaded yet sorry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9nQodMkphs

I would like to thank everyone from AMS for their awesome serivce, amazing parts and great work! Especially Eric for fitting me in on the spot even at the beginning of a super busy week, Danny and Ivan for the great work on the car, Chris for the sikkkkk tuning skills! It's nice to have true support from you guys, I truly appreciate everything! Looking forward to moving forward See you all soon!

Ryan

 

great work Ryan-I installed the SS brake lines and collant hoses a couple weeks ago and agree 100%-braking is that much better (and a little cooler) and the collant hoses have helped a ton (close to 10 deg temp diff). Car is looking great as usual (I assume the Ins man went okay?) See you in Amery!

 

This car is amazing. I saw it in the shop last monday..sounds awesome, what kind of exhaust do you have?

 

From all of us here at the shop Ryan....THANK YOU! Its really nice to be attached to someone that is so dedicated to their sport. You are always welcome here and we will always do what we can to get you in if there is ever another time sensitive issue.

a HUGE congrats on the number one qualifier and the new record! There is no stopping you it seems like. Between you and Ben you guys are really putting the X and AMS X Tuning on the map and we love you guys for it! keep up the PHENOMENAL work!!!!!!

Eric

 

Ryan, when do you work!!!!

 

Ryan, In the U-Tube vid you posted, was that a 09 GTR in front of you? If yes, then it appeared you could easily stay with him. Now from your other post, does your X just have AMS exhaust, intake, some IC pipes and a tune? If the answer is also yes, then either you are a much better driver than the individual driving the GTR or the GTR is a tank relative to your X or some combination of the two. Your thoughts?

Later, Ken

 

My take from the video.... Ryan was pushing much harder in the turns than the GTR... the GTR was much faster on the straits and entered and exited the turns with a lower speed. Given equa drivers i think the GTR would easily take Ryans X (sorry)... but in this situation and roles were reversed and the X was in front Ryan could have easily held off the GTR because he would build quite a buffer zone going through the turns. But we must keep in mind Road Atlanta is a highspeed course and it would easily favor the faster GTR

 

Thanks! You heard it when it was an open downpipe haha, I was fixing my exhaust and took it off at Road America.

 

Thanks for the kind words Eric! I hope to keep up the winning, and with AMS' continued support, that's a real possibility!

 

Ya that was an R35 GT-R! Yea just AMS bolt-on's and a tune. I think he was just taking really bad lines, on this track the GT-R should easily spank me with the long straights...but on a tighter track my X would be able to keep up with a well driven GT-R.

 

Congrats Ryan, can't wait to get back out on a track with you again!

 

Wow, bolt-ons and tune and the X could keep up with GTR! Very, very impressive! Yes, it is true you had a redone suspension a la Robispec (~$4.5K), replaced rotors (~$300) and SS brake lines , so a $35+4.5+0.3+1.2 (tires)+$0.8 (tune)+ $1.5K (clutch/drivetrain=~$43.5K vs a $80+$20-30K (dealer mark up)=~$100-130K GTR was definitely better in the corners but slower in the straights. So let's see here, I wonder what would be the outcome if one put the $56.5-66.5K differential into Ryan's car. No, no that is too much. Let's just put less than half that figure in for a turbo and other goodies and would we all agree the GTR is toast on all elements of the track? And I still got ten's of thousands left over for the big party after the race. Which car do you think is the best bang for the buck?

Later, Ken

 

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Ryan- Well done at Road Atlanta. You know how to drive!

AMS crew- You guys are the ****. Keep up the great work. I want those gauges!

BEN

 

Haha if you put it that way, it makes the X look great. But money is all relative, that equation wouldn't and probably doesn't matter to the GT-R man and he's perfectly fine with that. I could buy a rusted out civic hatch and throw 20k at it and would have a much faster car than I have now, but I won't do that and have no desire to.

Either way, thanks for the compliment!
Thanks Ben!

 

Ryan,
Your suggestion of putting the $$ into a Civic reminds me of a judge when I was in traffic court fighting a speeding ticket," I see your point, I just don't agree with it". A Civic is not AWD and could not outperform the X in the twisty's everything else being equal; I was contrasting the GTR, an AWD car, to a similar performance AWD car, the X. Both these cars were designed for performance but one more than the other. Nissan pulled out all the stops on the GTR; they even had Cosworth make major mod's to the VQ with special coating on the pistons and the like to get more HP and presumably reliability. Then Nissan hyped the hell out of the car and ergo we get the huge cost differential between the X and the GTR. My point here is, just looking at awd production cars, I think your current vehicle (and perhaps the STI; forgive me Lord for this transgression) and associated, very inexpensive mod's relative to the OEM GTR, the X is competitive. That said, with some additional, but reasonable cash (e.g., a larger turbo and associated parts) will outperform the GTR for tens of thousands less $$. Given the difficulty or should I say remote possiblity of modifiying the GTR's ECU, I think this information demonstrates the X ( and other similar based platforms) to be the better investment from a performance point of view.

Sorry for going off topic here and detracting from your efforts and dedication to the X which are commendable but when I saw that vid and that expensive "tank" in front of you laboring in and out of the corners, I could not contain myself. Keep up the good work and I hope and trust AMS's X entry in the Sport Compact's Best Street Car contest will prove, once and for all, the obvious.

Later, Ken