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Engine and Exterior Technical Details

6:39
44:36
324.5K views

At 6:39 in

Rusty Wallace's Legendary "Midnight" NASCAR Race Car is Track Ready Again! (Ford C3 Engine Sounds)

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What happens here

Mark, the host, and Rusty begin detailing the engine bay, revealing that the restored engine makes an impressive 750 horsepower. The previous engine was a 'show car' engine, not race-ready. Nick Ramey sourced original parts and an authentic Penske block from that period, which forms the core of the newly built engine. Rusty emphasizes that this isn't merely a static display but a fully functional, race-ready engine capable of running a 600-mile race. They performed a pre-start sequence, pre-heating the oil to 180 degrees Fahrenheit for about an hour using a specialized external heater, then manually priming the oil pump before finally firing up the engine. Mark also admires the car's paint, noting it is authentic paint, not a modern vinyl wrap, and points out the specific metallic yellow used in the livery, which was a proprietary pigment for Pennzoil-sponsored cars.

Goal: Showcase the authenticity and power of the restored engine and exterior aesthetics.

Tools and materials

  • Blue Lug Nuts — Authentic lug nuts from the car's racing era
  • C3 Race Engine Ford — The rebuilt engine, producing 750 horsepower
  • Custom Goodyear Eagle #1 Tires Goodyear — Period-correct race tires
  • Engine Oil Pre-heater — Warming the engine oil to 180 degrees Fahrenheit before starting
  • NASCAR Race Car 'Midnight' Penske Racing — The restored vehicle
  • Oil Pump Primer — Manually circulating oil through the engine before starting
  • Penske Racing Shocks Penske Racing — Original shock absorbers for the car
  • Sharpie Marker Sharpie — Used to mark desired pit road speeds on the tachometer
  • Engine Oil — Lubricating the engine components

What they say

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did here I went to restore this car I want to make sure that everything was was really it was really kind of proper and it correct there so I went to um let me think about Ford engines like I think right now is this is Doug Yates he's the man so I called Doug and Jeff Clark and asked them yeah who would be the best guy to build an authentic race engine for this period and they said there's only one person out there and it's Nick Ramey you know Nick was Nick was Robert's right hand guy during that period knows everything about about these engines so I called Nick and he came out we looked we looked uh we talked about the project how much power it should make you know what the engine is made back then and then he really went to work sourcing all the parts for it um when we pulled pulled this engine out we found it was a lot of a lot of show car parts a lot of the lovers uh really blowing up race car stuff that they put more or less making a show car so it wasn't a whole lot that was salvageable a few parts but Nick worked really hard trying to find authentic parts actually went and found an authentic Penske block from that period and that's where they actually built the engine up on so this is you know this is an awesome authentic Ford C3 engine from that period makes about 750 horsepower [Applause] [Music] foreign blocks of Ford block okay but the way we even Mount the accessories to the block you know whether the way the front motor mount would go on or whatever was a little bit different from Team to team so they had to hunt around and find a forward block that one of our Penske Ford blocks and they found almost a brand new one and got it and did some machine work and like Greg said built it there but I mean what's so cool about it is that this isn't just an old show car motor I mean this baby is race ready I'm talking go out and start the biggest race of the Year and have confidence it's going to finish 500 miles you can tell just by the sound of it that this is not a screw around engine like just when it's when it's kicking you in the chest at idle you know it's ready to go so one of the big things that we've been talking about is making the southern 500 throwback week really really big uh Jim Francis kind of challenged a bunch of us to sit down in a room and talk about how to make it bigger and one of them was to get real authentic cars and help Pace the field for the southern 500. so this car is going to be one of the cars pacing the field for the…

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