Bad Penny runs the standing mile and other Sandhills frivolity..

[Steve1968LS2]

Great event again, so thanks to Optima for the chance to go again! (long ass drive though!)

24 hours to drive the 1350 miles there.. 72 hours in town and then 24 hours to drive home..

So, last year we ran the standing half mile and turned in 149mph.. the mail problem was that I had to shift to fifth right before the lights.. I'm sure they cost me a couple of mph.

This year I was tech'd in for the full standing mile. The first pass I missed a shift and ran a 168.2 mph.. car felt great.

Got my act together and ran a 170.9 on my next pass.. on the last pass I took off the sideview mirrors and ran 172.4 mph.

Now, this was only a few mph slower than a tweeked ZL1 Vette running.. and faster than many other cars, give the aerobrick I was in I was pretty damn happy. Car got a bit floaty around 155 but then settled down and felt good at 170.

My main problem now is that I'm out of gear.. I'm in 5th gear and the car is hitting fuel cutoff right at (and on the last run before) the mile.. so, even if I had more power I wouldn't be any faster. I need to move down to 3.50 gears (have 3.90s now) if I want to go faster.

In any event, I was very happy with the result.

Here's a video of the 170 mph run.. notice how much the side glass is sucked out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFlGR8lVhBI

Oh, and they had a burn out contest.. none the racers do it since it's sorta hard on tires, but I had an extra set of worn R888s so I thought "what the hell".. the crowd liked seeing a nice car do it for once. Made two passes, on the second one I started in third and wound it to 6000 rpm.

http://i50.tinypic.com/cm980.jpg

Video of burnout taken by Jim at Optima Batteries:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC8lAFaqTZc

HC8lAFaqTZc

Now to convert her to a drag car for my trip to Pomona raceway next weekend. :)

[Gordz32]

Pretty sweet, nice job Steve!

[DFRESH]

Awesome event---I will hope to tow out with you next year if you are going. Looks like a blast!

D

[gearheads78]

Sweet. I am getting the itch to go see one of these events. My friend Keith went 195 in his 69 Camaro at the Texas Mile. Its got me really wanting to see it in person.

[89 RS]

Great to hear Steve, I'd say you had some serious seat time with all that driving. Way to represent. :thumbsup:

[Vegas69]

That's flying Steve. :thumbsup:

[Ron in SoCal]

Very cool Steve! Thx for sharing :thumbsup:

[Rick D]

Wow that's frickin awesome :thumbsup: I have been a passenger in a Porsche at 160 and that was moving. Great job Steve you must of had a smile all the way home!

[57hemicuda]

That is hauling the mail Steve. I love that car, and think back to when people used to call it a show car. Kinda makes me chuckle.

They start getting a little squirrely above 150mph don't they? Makes you start thinking of lug nuts and wheel bearings at those speeds.LOL

[Steve1968LS2]

what did the new engine in bad penny dyno at? thats wild you picked that mph just removing the mirrors....

why do you think the car went from getting light at 150 to settling down at a higher speed???

612 rwhp and 585 ft

Not sure.. guess it was trying to decide if it should sqaut down or fly away.. squat won.. thankfully :) -- Others said the same thing a little squirm at 150-160 and then back stable.

That is hauling the mail Steve. I love that car, and think back to when people used to call it a show car. Kinda makes me chuckle.

They start getting a little squirrely above 150mph don't they? Makes you start thinking of lug nuts and wheel bearings at those speeds.LOL

Yea, you think "Did I torque those bolts down?" "So, what's my plan if a front tire unloads???" "Hope a wild turkey doesn't run into the road!" lol

[GregWeld]

Despite the brutal drive -- glad you had a great time! Love the burnout photo!

Funny how our brains work -- at the time you're only thinking about going faster... it's before or after we're thinking "what if...." Good thing when they fire off that those "what ifs" dissolve or none of us would do any of this!:willy:

[Track Junky]

Impressive Speed :thumbsup:. You guys are nuts.

[sik68]

That was awesome thanks for the ride along!

[Rybar]

Thanks for posting Steve. Loved the burnout vid and pic. :thumbsup: And impressive mph in that brick first gen

[Steve1968LS2]

Thanks for posting Steve. Loved the burnout vid and pic. :thumbsup: And impressive mph in that brick first gen

Watch the vid again and notice how much the side glass is sucked outward.. tells you how much air pressure is involved.

Some Vette guys didn't believe it ran that.. especially the ones that I was faster than. lol

[Flash68]

That is gnarly. I've been that speed in a modern Euro car but it's a whole nuther' ballgame in an old hunk o metal. :unibrow:

:thumbsup:

[Steve1968LS2]

And here's the result of going from 3.90 to 3.50 gears:

http://i49.tinypic.com/hwd3yw.jpg

[WSSix]

Good job!

[tazzz2_ca]

Congrats buddy that is awesome.... I was so bummed out with my car breaking prior to the event but thankful it didn't happen at speed. Good news is that it's with Scott and he is doing a serious once over on the car preparing it for LS Fest....

Again, ""great job with Penny"" buddy....

[WicKeD_SS]

Very nice! Congrats :thumbsup:

[CarlC]

I wonder if another 5mph would cause the window to break?

Would they allow the windows to be open? I wonder what the aero effects would do vs. the rear glass staying put.

[Stuart Adams]

Wicked burnout.

[Ron in SoCal]

Props to the navigator too :thumbsup:

[Steve1968LS2]

I wonder if another 5mph would cause the window to break?

Would they allow the windows to be open? I wonder what the aero effects would do vs. the rear glass staying put.

The aero with the windows down would be crap.. heck, I was driving a '67 with the windows down once and it popped the headliner (was older) at 120ish mph.

the window breaking would look pretty good on film though ;)

[sik68]

So who's going to be first to market with these for a 1st gen? :)

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y123/lotusnut/f40window.jpg

[glassman]

Tempered glass (7/32") holds up incredibly. Back glass popping out would be relative to the bonding to the body, modern cars are bonded in with autoglass polyurethane, 220 psi when properly bonded. Butyl tape like 8 to 12 psi (goes lower when its hotter, liquifies)

Interesting bout the air pressure; you are displacing so much air, so it creates more pressure inside the cab, i would think it creates a vacuum. Its an airline equation right?

Bout the hp chart, with the 3:50 and sixth gear, 243 with 685 rwhp, its only in theory, the Veyron, aero'd, 1100 horsyish, does 250. I read somewhere once where it takes an additional 100 hp +/- to increase 10 mph or so above 200, think about how much the air compresses and how it exponentially corrects itself. SIMPLY AWESOME!!!!!

Did i spy the Finchmobile on the side in the run down?

[WSSix]

Interesting bout the air pressure; you are displacing so much air, so it creates more pressure inside the cab, i would think it creates a vacuum. Its an airline equation right?



Correct. The air passing by the car creates a low pressure point. The pressures inside the interior of the car are pushing the windows out. I don't think there is an actual vacuum involved though. Just greater pressure on the inside compared to outside

[Steve1968LS2]

Correct. The air passing by the car creates a low pressure point. The pressures inside the interior of the car are pushing the windows out. I don't think there is an actual vacuum involved though. Just greater pressure on the inside compared to outside

Thanks..

Next goal would be 180...

[WSSix]

Steve, a couple years ago I swear there was an aerodynamics sticky on pt.com in advanced tech I believe. I read everything that was linked and found it very straight forward and easy to understand. It even talked about string testing and using two different gauges to monitor pressure differentials across say the radiator to help cooling capacity. Given that the car has no aero mods, you may want to look into adding some. I'm sure a belly pan of sorts would help and not change the way the car looks. It may even help with air flow through the radiator. The author of the links I read used a belly pan to lower his intercooler temps. It was just a matter of monitoring pressure differentials to ensure air was flowing through the engine bay.