Tracking down the history of "Ten Penny"

[WagonDriver]

Long time viewer, new poster so hold on to yer asses.

Maybe 10 years ago I acquired '91 #0079 - "Ten Penny" from an underwhelming ebay auction. I design aircraft engines for a living, and always have been enamored with the LT5, so this was m chance, what could go wrong?

The car was a bit of a basket case, and over time is fully coming together. It didn't come with a lot of history, just a list of some generic aftermarket parts, but as I rebuilt different components and systems I've been tracking unique markings and feel like this particular Z has some history. I'll leave any assumptions out of it and see if y'all can fill in some blanks using only the things I'm sure of.

As for the name "Ten Penny" is paint penned on many many parts of the car. The first time I had it on a lift it screamed that the car had been taken apart and put back together... why else would you mark it like that.



I can only assume it has something to do with a 3in framing nail, but honestly have no idea. But I still call the Car "Ten" out of respect.



When I got it the transmission sounded like ***. Growled mercilessly and clunked hard from a failing dual mass flywheel. When I pulled it, I saw more paint pen, but this time it said "Auto Masters". At the time, I was completely unfamiliar, and thought to myself "oh ****, this is a scrapyard transmission".



I reached out to Bill Boudreau to find out about rebuild options to which he replied the following:

"There is a bit of history behind this transmission. I built this unit for Jim Van Dorn of Auto Masters in California (at that time). Auto Masters has since then moved shop to Bowling Green KY next to the Corvette Museum and the Corvette Production Plant.

That was ZP Build #135 (I?m currently building #314) that I built for Jim Van Dorn to be used in one of the two Grand-Am Pirate Racing ZR-1 cars. One of Pirate Racing ZR-1 is on exhibit at the Corvette Museum today. Bill Cooper was the driver for Pirate Racing. Cooper was a push-it-to-the-edge driver with one wheel off the track during most corners. During the last two seasons, they had a tough time keeping transmissions in one of the cars because the frame was starting to separate and the undue stress was causing the mounting ears of the transmissions to brake off. Where the ears welded back on with this particular unit you have? If you could, please send me a few pictures of the entire transmission.

This transmission played a major roll representing Corvette Racing on the Grand-Am circuit during the years that GM didn't have deep involvement with Corvette Racing."

Indeed it had been.

I've found a lot of things here and there that are highly modified. of significance is recently a trip under the plenum to swap injectors (finally gave) and cleaning up all the other aging items under there, noticed these markings:



Is it possible that a single car is a JVD car and also has been to DRM? Does DRM 1 mean the first one? No idea, but this thing is a beast and I'm happy to take care of it, and hopefully piece the history back together. As the car is approaching 100,000mi there are obviously odds and ends that are always in need of tidying, but it still turns heads and destroys everything at a stoplight.