Volvospeed: Thank you Paul for allowing us this time. What is your official
job title from AtSpeed?

Paul Amico: Director of Motorsports and Team Manager

Volvospeed: And on a day to day basis what exactly are you responsible
for?

Paul Amico: I manage all of our motorsports programs, as distinguished
from our customer shop business. This includes the World Challenge team plus
any other professional racing activities that are either internal or for
customers that we support. I coordinate all of the activities, including
establishing our strategy and approach, selecting and directing the staff,
negotiating contracts with our major suppliers, representing us with the
sanctioning bodies, managing the budget, and whatever else it takes to make
sure that we are moving forward. In short, I am the primary decision-maker
for our racing programs.

Volvospeed: Where do you predict At Speed will be in 16 months? Do you
think you will still be campaigning the Volvos?

Paul Amico: Well, I certainly hope so. We don't have our financing
package in place yet for next year, but our goal is to race at least one
Volvo, and preferably two. Given the level of development of the car, there
is no reason why we should not be in the running for both a driver and
manufacturer championship. Running the second car is almost essential in
order to achieve the goal of a manufacturer championship. A driver can have
one or two bad results and still be in contention for the championship, but
a marque really can't. If you look at this year, Porsche is currently
leading because three different drivers have been the top Porsche at least
once, and the lead is only one point over Viper, which has also had multiple
drivers contributing to the cause. That's why getting funding for a two car
effort is so important to our goals.

Volvospeed: It sounds like you have a very competitive setup.  For those who
are not familiar with Speed GT can you tell us a little about how the Volvo
stacks up to the competition?  Basically its strengths and weaknesses.

Paul Amico:  SCCAPro tries to balance the competetiveness of the cars as
much as possible, but each car is different so they have certain advantages
and disadvantages.  We have two primary weaknesses with regard to the other
cars.  We have the smallest engine, and it runs a big turbo, so we don't
have the torque of the big V-8s and V-10s under acceleration so the Vettes,
Vipers, and Caddies will pull us coming out of the turns.  It's not as big a
disadvantage to the Porsches, but some.  The other is our shape.  No offense
intended, but we are trying to push a brick through the air.  The Porsches,
Vettes, and Vipers are much sleaker.  The Caddies less so.  We do have some
advantages.  We have excellent braking, better than most cars except perhaps
the Porsche.  Also, the AWD gives us an advantage through and out of the
corners -- we can generally get on the power sooner and have better exit
speed.  The Porsche has a similar handling advantage because the rear engine
can swing the car and point and shoot, but the other cars must be patient.
What it all adds up to is the twistier the turns, the better for us, and the
longer the straights the better for them.  Hence, our good performances at
Mid-Ohio and Mosport (5th qualifying in the dry, even being balked by a
slower car during the fastest lap) and our lesser performance at Road
America.

Volvospeed:  I know you do not have any specifics, but can you help put all
of that into perspective?  Something to help the members visualize how fast
the car is.  Lateral G figures, 0-60 numbers maybe?

Paul Amico:  0-60?  An interesting question.  I wish we had accurate data on
the standing starts, but the data acquisition usually triggers after we get
rolling.  I did do a quick check on some other ranges in the data, and have
some ballpark numbers.  60-100 in 3.5 seconds; 60-140 in 11 seconds; 80-140
in 11 seconds; 100-140 in 9 seconds.  Again, these are approximate numbers
taken off a couple of laps at Road America and Mosport.  The top speed of
the car is in the neighborhood of 160 with the current gearing.  It will
pull about 1.5 lateral G with the spec Toyo tires.

Volvospeed:  We also received a really good question from our cosmetic
forum.  They wanted to know how you picked the paint scheme for the car?
Did Volvo have anything to do with it or was it all At Speeds Design?  

Paul Amico:  This was a Bob Miller original design.  He came up with the
concept and colors and had a graphic designer help him with the details.  Of
course, it was approved by Volvo NA since they were the primary sponsor at
the time.

Again thank you for the time!  Figure part III in a week or so pre race so.