Article by Rick Jensen. Images and video from AMS Performance.
You young guys raised on modern domestic, JDM and Euro rockets may not remember this, but back in the early 1990s rat tails and CDs ruled, Vanilla Ice played un-ironically and we rolled in "fast” street-legal cars. They could turn a high 4-second, 0-60 time and just crack an 11-second quarter mile if power and traction were spot on.
In those days, the street tires were as hard as hockey pucks, the engine bays had more vacuum tubing than electrical wiring and owning a 500-hp car that actually ran that fast on the street was an amazing accomplishment.
But now, 20 years later, AMS Performance has redefined—possibly forever—what being a fast street-legal car means. That’s because AMS just posted a video of their Alpha Omega GT-R blowing through the quarter mile in under 8 seconds, and at over 190 miles an hour!
This video and a blog from September 18 is AMS’s first Alpha Omega update in awhile. Apparently, a 2,000-plus horsepower, street-driven GT-R can have traction problems (who knew?), so AMS has been working hard to find the optimal drivetrain and suspension setup. With the Texas Speed Syndicate Texas Invitational just around the corner, and a new Alpha 20 turbo system and suspension installed, AMS set Alpha Omega loose on Great Lakes Dragaway in Union Grove, Wisconsin.
Now, as I alluded to earlier, I’m old. Being old, I’ve seen a lot of drag racing in my day, and I’ve seen a lot of really fast cars continually set the bar higher. So don’t take it lightly when I say that I’ve never seen anything like the menacing Alpha Omega’s hunched-down, screaming launches… Good God. Go 30 seconds into this vid to see what I mean: watching AO’s four drive wheels yank it out of the hole, while that unholy wail assaults your eardrums, is a religious experience. I started to wonder if its 1.58-second, 0-60 time was accurate—ONLY 1.58?? C’MON MAN! And FYI, 0 to 100 miles an hour takes only 2.85 seconds in this beast.
After a quick half-track shakedown run, Alpha Omega ran an 8.0 at 180 mph right out of the gate. As AMS did some tweaking and the track came around, the unholy GT-R went 8.0 at 182, 7.9 at 188, and 7.8 at 187. Then a potential 7.7 run was aborted due to a voltage issue not allowing a shift into fifth gear (it still ran 8-flat!). Finally, 190 miles an hour was recorded on a 7.94 hit—a new mph record.
The AMS team thinks that there’s even more ET and mph locked up in Alpha Omega. And while the Texas Invitational invites only the most elite machines to do battle in an airfield exhibition, AMS is putting in the work to have Alpha Omega ready to rumble. Look for a full feature of this amazing machine soon.
Check out the AMS Performance blog update here.
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