Well now that we have had a bit of time to breathe I wanted to lay out a recap of the weekend’s events.

After a 21 hour drive to Houston we rolled into the Omni hotel on Wednesday night. To our surprise Tym, Neil and the boys at Switzer rolled in right next to us. A few moments later we were all sharing a laugh in our motor home. Tym, Neil and all the guys at Switzer performance are really nice people and it was a breath of fresh air to just sit back and share some laughs with them. Our two shops have always had a strong relationship despite what the public might have thought. We consider all the guys at Switzer performance our friends and we are happy we got to spend some time with them.

Thursday morning we moved our rig over to Hennessey’s place and from the second we were there they were nothing short of amazing. These guys jumped through hoops to make sure we were comfortable and whatever need we had was met. Frank, Kevin, Dave and crew are just GREAT guys to work with and just flat out GOOD PEOPLE!



Friday was the dyno competion and we opted to sit it out and just enjoy the day with our customers as we knew the next two days were going to be a handful. We had so many friends/customers spend time with us that it proved to be one of the best days we have had at an event. We really are blessed to have so many fantastic people at our side.





Saturday was all business. Ivan and Chris set up a game plan the night before for Omega’s maiden voyage. Hing and the boys at SPE kept us on our toes by breaking our 8.97 record the night before so we had our work cut out for us. Chris and Ivan agreed that the first pass should just be a low boost shake down run to make sure everything is working as it should. So Ivan set out with a 28psi map and ran a very smooth 9.2@162.

Seeing that the first run went well, Chris and Ivan agreed to turn up the boost a little to about 35 psi. Ivan went out again, this time running an 8.79 @ 169mph. Unfortunately, about 150 ft before the finish line, the car popped off an intercooler pipe taking out the front lip/under tray and ruined the mounting points for the under tray on the bumper. Luckily Tim Sanders offered up his bumper and lip for the cause and Ivan was quickly at work on Hennessey’s lift for the transplant.








With time for one more run on Saturday, Chris determined it was best to leave the boost at 35 psi and see what Omega would do with a clean pass. Ivan set off on his third pass of the day and WHAT a pass it was. From the starting line the car looked to get quite a bit sideways. I think everyone at the starting line thought for sure Ivan was going to let out of the throttle but he kept the accelerator pegged and Omega as straight as he could while pulling off the record breaking pass of the day…. An 8.63 @ 172 MPH with a 3.26 60-130 time on the Vbox!!!!! All this was done into a pretty bad 10-15mph head wind. Sadly we lost another lip at about 179mph (according to the Vbox) so our day was done and the search for another bumper and lip was on.













The lip failure was resulting from two braces being absent due to lack of room for Omega’s quite large intercooler. Thanks to Hennessey and Wreckless on Nagtroc we had spare bumpers and lips for Sundays racing. Ivan was also able to spend most of the morning fabricating a way to mount those two previously absent lip/under tray braces. This is one of the many reasons we test before we allow a customer to purchase a part/package. You simply don’t know what a part or package limits are until you test them in the real world. At roughly 1pm Ivan finished up and we were ready for another pass with Omega.






Chris felt that Omega still had more in her at the 35psi boost level so we agreed to leave things be and see if better traction would yield a better time. The 8.63 pass left a little on the table as Ivan did lose some acceleration with the car sliding around so much. In fact he got so loose that when it hooked up again OMEGA lifted the passenger front wheel a few inches off the ground. Everyone held their breath as Ivan tripped the staging beams yet again. When it was all over not only was the lip and bumper still on but the world record had been beaten AGAIN. 8.62 @ 173.8 MPH with a 60-130 time of 3.13 seconds!!!!!! This time into a 20mph head wing. What’s also remarkable was the fact that Omega (still at 35 psi) was able to trap 135.99 mph in the 1/8 mile!!!!!!











With rain rolling in and our flight back home drawing near we had but one more chance to run. Chris turned the boost up a little and Ivan set out again. Omega proved to be a bit too much for the tires and the track that pass though. The tires spun so bad in second that Ivan had to abort the run and we had to pack it in for the day. Looks like we will need to find a sticky track next time around

All in all Omega’s maiden voyage went very well.

We do want to take the time out to acknowledge some people that made this weekend possible:

To everyone at AMS that put in some crazy hours to make sure Omega happened in time for TX2K12, From Ivan to Chris, Martin….EVERYONE at the shop had a hand in making Omega possible.

To Tim Sanders for not pausing for second to let us borrow his lip and bumper for our run. You have become far more than a customer to us and are one of the best friends we could ever ask for.

To Frankie, Kevin, Dave and everyone at Hennessey Performance. We flat out could NOT have done this without you. I wish every colleague we had in this business was as friendly and accommodating as you guys are. Thank you sincerely!

To John Shepherd, Dodson, Driveshaft shop and everyone that helped make the building of Omega possible.

To Nica DeDominico for the great pictures you saw above

To Peter and the TX2K12 staff. You put on a GREAT event yet again and one we will continue to look forward to for years to come. I think the quote of the weekend was a Supra owner coming up and telling us they should rename the event to the GTR / Nissan Nationals.

Stay tuned for our Texas mile thread where Omega was able to do 233.1 mph on 29psi of boost!

 

Congratulations on an amazing record. Hauling the mail!

 

Ivan the Great!! Good to meet you guys at 2K AND the Mile. Congrats on a solid trip to our awesome state of TEXAS!!

 

Congrats!!! Just amazing how far this platform has been pushed in such a short amount of time.

 

Great pass on such a poor drag strip!

 

I want a alpha 12 t-shirt!! LOL Great pics!!

 

I'm curious why everybody rags on this drag strip. If I recall correctly the Supra record and the GTR record have both been set on this strip.

 

Thanks! We are looking forward to further testing and going quicker and faster

lol! Ivan is the man for sure and more then proved his driving skills at both TX2K and the TX Mile.

We all love Texas! AMS Texas branch???

Thanks for the positive response

thanks

I do agree and still going to keep pushing.

We are more then pleased with the Alpha Omega's first outing.

http://www.amsperformance.com/cart/a...r-t-shirt.html

thanks

Larry

 

Special thanks to Chad B and the boys at Forged for catching this shot of Omega lifting the tire on the 2-3 shift during the 8.63 pass

Eric

 

Just take a look at the photos and the video of the racing surface, but more importantly the safety features (or lack thereof).

What you want for your world record attempt is:
+ Dead flat surface with no bumps or humps
+ Downhill gradient to maximum allowable
+ Concrete surface to half track (or ideally full track)
+ Full safety barriers full length
+ Maximum braking area with large sandtrap

And

+ Track altitude as low as possible (below sea level)
+ Very hot day to heat up track surface, followed by suddenly cold change with cool dry air
+ Event to be run immediately after a Top Fuller event (sticky rubber all over the groove)