Schwing!!!

Nice picture! Oh yeah...Great car too.

Very cool shot! Which one is bad Penny again!!?!? lol:lol:
(Nice to see a 4th gen in the shot as well.:thumbsup: )

Shameless.

Is that your wife !? :woot:

Travis

Nope.. and besides, to me my wife is hotter (mainly because she puts up with me) :)

Model for a shoot we did.. had to grab a shot or two for you guys.

Steve, thanks for thinking of us. :unibrow:

Cant we all just stay focused on the headlights?:D

Oops.....I mean "Bad Penny"

Okay Steve serious Question here.

How did "Bad Penny" get her name ?

Stop holding out on us. Where is the other shot?:unibrow:

Thanx for the update Steve!!:unibrow:

When the car came home my wife named it Penny due to the copper color.. I thought it didn't have enough punch so I added the "Bad" part.

And it was appropriate given the meaning of the phrase, as in "keeps turning up like a bad penny". This was a car, then a drag race car, then a pro-street car, and now pro-touring car.. it just keeps coming back.

And that's the story.. :)

Steve; Does penny get to go back to optima this year.Or is the cobra the only returner from last year.Who get an automatic invite.Do any of the goodguys autocrosser's get an invite this year. Thanks Scott.

I still want to see before and after pics, like when it was a pro street car, it would be cool to see the transformation.. somebody mentioned it somewhere else but i never saw any pics turn up..

Nope.. past winners are invited back.. so I will be there.

The Cobra is invited back as an exhibition car.. I think they will be trying harder to keep race cars and cars that are shoe ins out of the event. After all, this is supposed to be about SEMA type PT cars and such and not SCCA track cars than can sort be driven on the street.

It's one reason they are ditching the race tires this year and moving to 200 treadwear.

Not sure on the GG autocross deal.. haven't heard.

Just the Texas Good Guys event gets an invite.

Fort Worth right? You going?

I think I will come back this year.Will leave the car at home and bring my camera.Would like to have a chance to meet everybody.Have they talked about making it two days so it's not so fast paced. Any way Steve good luck too you.Love your car.:thumbsup:

Maybe:unibrow:

Steve,
I think the continuation of return winners is great. It gives the other nominees showing up a chance to beat the title cars. I also feel the way Optima invites are picked is somewhat fair but why not chose a car from each event (GG, Motorstate, etc.) or would that be too many to fill the ticket. IMO the winner should be invited for years to come until beaten or in your case retire LOL.
The rebirthing of Penny is coming along sweet Steve, what made you decide on changing out the shocks for the Penske's.
Maybe I missed your explanation in the rebuild thread or is it a status, got to have them situation :yes:

Yea, it's fun to go back.. to be honest if we wouldn't have lost a PS pump we would have came in third overall.. if the rules were like they will be this year (where you get points for placing instead of an added time) we would have finished second behind the Cobra.. So Penny isn't quite past her prime yet.

Many of the events like Motorstate and such ARE qaulifier events.. So you wish has come true.

The switch to Penske is because they are willing to work with us to make a shock to fit the car. None of the "off the shelf" Bilstien sizes are working in our wierd application. The delay is that F1 called our guy to Europe and since they spend a bit more $$$.. lol

Penny's last engine... well, at least final for a LONG time..

http://i29.tinypic.com/2m3jzih.jpg

http://i26.tinypic.com/2mpertw.jpg

We start the machine work early next week.. everything is here, sorted and ready to go in. Only thing I'm waiting for is the custom Canton pan to be finished.

Install on August 26th at the latest.. then ready for the Holley LS-Fest and RTTH events.

Wow!! going w/penske's I think they will make a big differant's.All the SCCA guy's I know say they really work.Good luck.:thumbsup:

OK Steve, need info on this new motor. :yes: :thumbsup:

RHS short deck block - 4.155 bore
Mast Motorsports 12-degree LS7 bad ass heads
Lunati Pro Crank - 4.250 stroke
Lunati Pro I-beam rods - 6.125"
Weisco pistons (11.3:1) designed for the stroke
ARP everything
FAST 102mm LS3 style intake
Mike Norris ported TB and transition ring
CHE bushed LS7 rockers
COMP vertical bar lifters, pushrods, timing chain, etc
Moroso oil pump

We have two camshafts to try.. one is really snotty.. both are hyd.

The smaller is a just a touch bigger than the one in my 454.. the other is.. well.. bigger

Thought it would be fun to see the power differences.

Displacement is 461 cubes.. With the big cam we should be over 700.. no idea on torque but more than I need.

I will say the finish work on this RHS block is pretty damn impressive

That RHS block is pure sex! I've seen it on a few builds over on LS1tech and they seem to be the hot ticket if you're going all out.

Nice job Steve; sounds like your NA motor will be top of the heap unless someone buys Tyler's 'friend's' C5....:willy:

Yeah, but by the time someone gets that C5R engine running Steve will have something more badass than a C6R engine in his car. I don't believe for a second this will be Penny's last engine. There will always be something better, and someone will always want to give whatever that may be to Steve :lol:

Matt

Yea, for an NA motor it should be able to least have a fighting chance against all these blowers.. but the lack of weight will pay off huge in tight handling like autocross and such.

The C5R deal is sick.. although running race gas would make me sad.

I will tell you.. swapping out engine on a "done" car is a real PITA.. I really don't need to swap from the current 454 but I was asked by RHS/COMP to build something and they've always been great to me.

Really don't know what I would build to go beyond this. I could dry sump it but my Canton pan has never let down so why? To go bigger I would have to move to a tall deck block and that would mean custom headers and intake.. no thanks to either of those.

I need to spend time dialing in shocks and such.. but I learn more everytime I do this engine exercise

Small update..

8300RM Penske shocks are done and will ship to Global West on Monday. Supposed to have some new uber valve in it. :woot:

Yesterday I drove her to Best Of Show where we dropped the Magnum and replaced it with the one from Track Rat. Solve the first gear problem so the syncro was def bad as I suspected. The one from the car will be shipped back to Tremec and fixed for Track Rat.

Have done this so much that it's now a three hour job. Thanks Chris!

New, longer rear wheel studs are installed.

BottomFeeder front spoiler deal was modified and installed.. nice little item.

Sometime this week will swap out the cam for a three bolt version and install the Penske shocks. We will test the car on the 30th with the Pozzis and Penske is flying out an engineer to help set her up and to help set up the 2010 SS which is getting a prototype set of Penske replacement struts.

Car runs good now but I need to deepen the oil pan near the front crank lobe since it's too close and frothing the oil a bit. Engine runs, in hot weather, at 180.. even in high traffic it wont go over 190. Oil temps are actually too low and in the 180 range. If I try hard they will go 200 so I will make a block off for the Setrab for street use.

Two new 275/35/18 viper spec PS2s are on the way.. anyone want to buy my slightly used old tires?

http://i38.tinypic.com/2v7vrm0.jpg

Don't make a block off -- just put in a thermostat.... You'll forget the block off on a track day - and that won't turn out good.

I have a 215 degree Canton t-stat.. but a little always bypasses through it.

My oil temps are taken at the pan.

I thought you did.... I spent some time that day at BOS studying your system when we stopped by before RTTC. Loved the execution of the whole system. The rest of the car is "okay" I guess. If that's what you're in to. :D

Guess it should bypass some oil. Surprised that it runs that cool though with the thermostat installed but I've never had one so what do I know!

Bad Penney has helped remove a lot of the shame that comes from not owning a '69.

:D

lol.. with help from the One Lap Camaro and a few others.. :)

------

Custom shocks from Penske Racing arrived today.. we install them tomorrow. They are surprisingly light.

Doing the install and tuning at Global West.

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Steve how much those babes set you back??? Please keep use posted on how they work... Very interested...

My good guy price for the story was over $500 per a corner.. I think retail is just over $800 per corner. And that doesn't include springs but I won a full set of Eibachs at last year's Optima

Mario....

They're less if a bunch of their teeth are missing.

Very nice.:thumbsup:

Those things are sweet. You could set those up on a fireplace mantle as artwork.:cool:

New 8300 RM shocks are now installed and ready to rumble.

BIG thanks to the guys at Global West (Doug and Eric) who worked their asses off to get these on and get them on right. The front was pretty straightforward but they still had to make some spacers and shims in thier machine shop.

The rears were a bit more challenging since we were moving to the upper shock mount. Doug didn't like the load that would be placed on the bolt in that location so he and Eric came up with a way to brace the bolt off the roll cage. Double sheer for all you nerdy engineers out there. The cans are in the trunk so adjustments will be a snap.

Took an initial guess at the settings and so far I'm pretty happy. The car road a ton nicer on the 40 mile drive home and the 215/91 is one of those plate freeways which can be a real kidney killer. We have tons of compression and rebound and overall everthing looks good.

Rear upper shock mount and canister mount: (Thanks to Cris at JCG for the super cool reservoir mounts.. they worked perfectly.
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