Project Bad Penny - more changes because done is boring

[Steve1968LS2]

PM checking will happen today.. I haven't really been home much in the last week.. I was busy doing this:



The new ZR1 style hubs are way stronger looking than my old C5/c6 hubs. The flanges are much thicker and the extra material was added to the back of the flange. Bolts up exactly the same. It comes with studs, but I pressed them out to add ARP versions. A highly reccomended part.


Here you can see the Raceseng spindle compared to a stock C5 unit. Much stronger and more rigid, especially in the brake mounting area. There's also a degree of neg camber built in and of course the 1.25" drop.


The lower spherical bushings were easy to install. We also ditched the eccentric bolts with Pfadt's camber kit. This way under hard cornering the alignment wont change. The kit comes with serveral sets of plates.


The uppers were bolt-in so long as you have a lathe, bridgeport mill, saws-all, grinder, dremel and a host of other tools. But they are in and should work great. To be fair there was nothing wrong with the parts, just had to work to get them bolted to the 21st Century subframe.


Here's the final deal all installed:


Now for the bad news... Since the drop spindles lower the lower CA in relation to the wheel I can no longer run my 17" wheels, so I will have to get a set of 18" track wheels. Oh well. I also had to clearance the lower control arms just a touch so the 18's wont rub under very hard turning. I will also be adding some stops that Kyle at DSE reccomended to limit the turning just a touch.

The good news: Even with my car lower the lower control arms are now perfectly parralel to the gound and the car feels amazing to drive. In my opinion it has the nicest most crisp and responsive steering I've ever experiences. The ride feels about the same, but I'm sure it's a touch more harsh over hard transitions. To me it's worth it for the trade off.

[Steve1968LS2]

Oh, and HUGE thanks to David Pozzi for stopping by and helping with the install.. that guy is always the "smartest man in the room" in regards to this stuff. He also did a pretty good alignment using a tape measure and some straight edges...

Thanks Dave.. you're the official crew cheif of Bad Penny.. :thumbsup:

[GMracer]

Good god Steve! looks amazing, everyday I wish I went with c5 suspension components up front and this does NOT help. But keep it up, can't wait to see some action shots.

[bwhinnen]

Looks great Steve! Amazing work by all involved!

[Mkelcy]

The uppers were bolt-in so long as you have a lathe, bridgeport mill, saws-all, grinder, dremel and a host of other tools. But they are in and should work great. To be fair there was nothing wrong with the parts, just had to work to get them bolted to the 21st Century subframe.

Steve: What was the issue with the upper swivel bushings and the 21st Century frame?

[Steve1968LS2]

Steve: What was the issue with the upper swivel bushings and the 21st Century frame?

The 21st subframe uses slotted inserts. Since these parts are used more in race applications they have a 1/2" hole in them. To use this hole 21st enlarged the holes in the factory dog bones to 1/2". The parts from Pfadt use the factory 10mm hole. BUT, there's not enough material on the Pfady dogbones to drill them out to 1/2".

So, we milled up a set of sleevs and reduced the holes in the slotted inserts to 10mm. This let us use 10mm 10.9 bolts to attach the new dogbones to the 21st frame.

[Mkelcy]

Thanks. It's nice having all the research and heavy lifting done by someone else.

Now, if you'd only started with stock rear frame rails I wouldn't have to think at all.

[Payton King]

That last pic is the money shot for sure. Looks great!

I have a number of questions for you. I will let you get caught up and I will give you a buzz.

How big of a difference in grip at the autocross from the R888 to the Kuhmos. I thought the R888's needed some heat to work.

[barraza]

Small hijack:
Care to share some tech on what it takes to get such good closeup suspension shots?

[dipren443]

Small hijack:
Care to share some tech on what it takes to get such good closeup suspension shots?

Steve always has some nice shots!! What kind of gear you shooting with Steve? Lighting? Using a macro for some of these shots I assume?

[Motown 454]

They look sweet Steve, like a work of art.

[Steve1968LS2]

Steve always has some nice shots!! What kind of gear you shooting with Steve? Lighting? Using a macro for some of these shots I assume?

I typically use a Canon 40D with either a 10-22 wide angle lense or my 28-135 IS lens (macro). I always shoot tech with a tripod and use a slower shutter speed so I can strobe a flash around the image. This gets rid of harsh shadows. For each of those shots I typically take 5 to 8 shots of different "exposures" which is called bracketing.

By messing with the f-stop I can "kill" the background and make it out of focus. This causes the eye to focus on the subject and not get distracted with background.

[Kenova]

Here's the final deal all installed:

It doesn't get much more hard core than that.
Yep, I'm jealous.

Ken

[dipren443]

It doesn't get much more hard core than that.
Yep, I'm jealous.

Ken

With ya on this Ken... Pure, unadulterated pornography right there. Surprised it wasn't censored by my work server.

[Steve1968LS2]

Thanks guys.. I'm very happy with the outcome.. I really can't think of anything to improve in terms of suspension outside of some further fine tuning (springs/sway bars)..

The comments I got at the autocross was that the car was very smooth and "un-dramatic"...

The only times faster than what I turned in were done by other people in my car. lol

Here's a shot Licata got. Mary would be proud that I'm looking far ahead and not "living in the moment"

[Steve1968LS2]

And some video from the mini Camaro Performers Editors Challenge

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/C...ors_645084.htm

[joe440]

man, that suspension is like an art peice, the whole car looks great as always

[LateNight72]

Looks good Steve.




Let me know we you want to get rid of your old knuckles & hubs...

[86regalss]

that is awesome. Will i get in trouble for having a license plate from the wrong year on my car? I want a black plate for my black car. I guess the '80's sunrise plate would be cool also. The new ca plates are boring.

[HectorM52]

And some video from the mini Camaro Performers Editors Challenge



http://videos.streetfire.net/video/C...ors_645084.htm

Video was removed???