[AMS]

The Redline Time Attack event at the famous Mazda Raceway- Laguna Seca started off with trouble. We arrived at the track late Friday afternoon and when pulling the car out of the trailer we noticed gas dripping from the vehicle. Our worst fears became a reality as upon further inspection we found a puncture hole in our gas tank which must have happened during the transport of the vehicle. Understandably this posed a huge problem as sourcing a gas tank at 7pm is next to impossible not even considering the time it would take to switch it out. We decided to try and patch up the tank with an over the counter fuel tank seal dough, and stayed up until 1 am fixing the leak and making adjustments to prepare the car for the event.

As many of you know Laguna Seca has a very strict 92 dB noise restriction with the sound station located 50ft away from the track on the right side. We feared our car would not be able to pass and as expected we got black flagged the 1st practice session Saturday morning. We swapped out the exhaust system with a standard AMS 3” resonated. It did the trick for 2 laps and once again we got bumped for sound. At that point the car also developed a mechanical issue and we’ve spend the remainder of the day working on the car.

We returned to the track next day. The air temperature was lower than the day prior and many of the cars who were passing the sound check the day before once again were over the 92 dB limit. We added a 90 deg. elbow to the muffler hoping to divert the sound away from the meter, it worked for a little bit and in one of the practice sessions we posted a 1.31.430 lap time which was the fastest time of the day. We felt very confident about the car and we knew we had what it takes to beat the competition. Unfortunately the air temperature was dropping throughout the day and once again we were faced with the noise restriction issue. With very limited resources at the track we hacked up the exhaust system and fabbed up the so called “AMS single stack exhaust” which extended past the wing of the car and utilized 3 mufflers/resonators. We went out for our 1st timed session and posted a time of 1.32.270 again being bumped for sound after a handful of laps. After that we switched the angle of the outlet pointing it to the left and away from the sound station.
For the final timed session we outfitted the car with a new set of BFG R1 tires, fed the beast a little more power and hoped for the best. As feared once again we got black flagged for noise level,-even with Paul letting off when passing the sound check station. The JIC S15 and the ESX World challenge Subaru WRX STI were among many other cars bumped for noise. The GST Subaru went on to win the Unlimited AWD class with a 1:31.851 lap time. They split their 3 inch exhaust system into a dual 2.5 inch set up with multiple mufflers! Our time put us 2nd in the Unlimited AWD class and 4th Overall


The AMS Time Attack team would like to thank the following sponsors for their generous support;

• EXEDY
• CUSCO / NUKABE
• BF Goodrich Tires
• Fuelab
• HQ Kustoms
• Precision Turbo
• CTG TORQline
• Shepherd Transmission
• Tial Sport
• Vibrant Performance
• Performance Friction
• HTP America
• JRZ USA
• AEM
• Wilwood

We also would like to thank our staff, our customers and the people who came out to support us at the event! A special thank you is also due to Sam at FIA Motorsports and Devin at Speed Element who offered to remove and lend us their OEM EVO gas tanks so we could run the event!!!

Now for the pics:


The view from the top of the hill.






Ahh, the famous corkscrew!


Paul Gerrard before the final session


Justin working on the car


The AMS Single Stack Exhaust aka "The Periscope"






Gary Sheehan piloting the ESX World Challenge STI

[AMS]

GST Motorsports Suabru Impreza L




After the event. From the left: Paul Gerrard, Martin Musial, Justin Wylde and myself.

Thank you

[midnit]

Those are some great pics man! Good job placing 2nd!

[wrbbugeye02]

Never thought id see a exhaust stack on a race car haha

[Parker]

pardon my stupidity but what is the point of the exhaust being that way?

[XIII]

rich i love that semi trailer smoke stack on the $200,000 evo!

[wrbbugeye02]

Originally Posted by Parker

pardon my stupidity but what is the point of the exhaust being that way?

If you read their thread they told you it was due to the noise regulations at the track to try and quiet the car

[AMG]

Very nice! Looks like an awesome event.

[Parker]

Originally Posted by wrbbugeye02

If you read their thread they told you it was due to the noise regulations at the track to try and quiet the car

, now I feel dumb. I skimmed over it and went straight to the photos.

[wrbbugeye02]

its all good