AMS Alpha 12 R35 GT-R Goes 9.0 in the quarter mile and breaks the record again, Its has not been an easy road though.

As you know, AMS has been hard at work pushing Tim Sanders’ ALPHA 12 GT-R to extreme, unseen limits. Admittedly, it hasn’t exactly been an easy road

Recently, we tested Tim Sanders’ ALPHA 12 GT-R on the AMS Mustang Dyno. The car made 1000ft-lbs of torque on the dyno when it started to push water. We pulled the engine to see what was going on and how things were holding up. For the most part, things looked good but the VR38 Engine was starting to show points of weakness. We made some modifications and prepared to test again.

This week we headed to the track for some test passes and to put a little more R&D into the Alpha package. We started the day running 9.3@160 on about 950 whp and steadily increased it to almost 1000Whp (Mustang Dyno) where we ran a best trap of 163mph. It was then that we broke our first rear axle on a GT-R. Thanks to Ivan’s quick work, we swapped it out and continued testing.

To push the limits, we turned up the power a little more and managed to get a 9.07@160. But, at about the 145mph mark, we blew a head gasket and lost a bank. It looks like we’re reaching the limits of the stock architecture of the GT-R VR38 and discovering its week points one-by-one.

Disheartened but never defeated, we headed back to the shop to work on improvements.

So, what have we learned so far?

So far, we can tell you that just installing a better head gasket won’t solve the issue, Presently, it seems that a reliable limit of the VR38DETT (with upgraded pistons and rods) is around1000 whp and 900 ft-lbs torque on a Mustang Dyno, and just about 1100 whp and 1000 ft-lbs torque on a Dynojet. We’ve definitely made more power and torque than that before but in our opinion, it’s going to be a little risky until the internal engine issues are addressed.

Which is what we’re doing right now, addressing the issues.

You might be asking yourself, “why the full disclosure?” AMS values the GT-R community and greatly respects its opinion. Unlike others, the GT-R community is a close-knit family and we want you to be “in the know” on what we’re doing.

We are pushing the GT-R to unseen limits. As you witness us reach these limits, we want to keep you informed on the type of research and engineering that we’re putting into resolving these issues. And, thanks to customers and friends like Tim Sanders we can push the envelope and bring a better and more powerful product to the GT-R community.

You might also be asking, “why are you having problems at this HP when others are not?” Historically, our Mustang Dyno has read incredibly low. When we went 163mph at the drag strip, our dyno was only recording between 980 and 1000whp. Others have claimed 100+whp yet their Trap speeds have been in the mid-150s.

Obviously there is a major difference in the way our dyno reads compared to others. It’s not that one dyno is right or wrong, they just read differently.

And, as we all know, the absence of information about a problem doesn’t necessarily mean a problem doesn’t exist. We’re just being upfront with what’s going on so that you are fully informed.
So, it’s back to work for us. You can rest assured that we are going to work harder than ever to continue pushing the limits of the VR38 and to use this information to produce the best possible parts for your GT-R.