Though the ZL1s were wildly popular and had no problems selling, Matt was still concerned with the rapidly inflating price due to the body kit that was expensive to reproduce. Quite a few lessons were learned in the production of the ZL1s, which would be taken into account on this new project, such as the impracticality of relying on outside body shops. Ultimately, he added a body shop to GMMG's repertoire and did virtually all of the work on the entire car in-house. By summer of 2004 a prototype had already been completed, but Murphy had to find a place to reproduce the panels and to do the rest of the bodywork. The cowl extension on the hood was made from carbon fiber and bonded to the rest of the stock hood, as was a new gas cap designed to fit the curves of the more shapely quarter-panel. The altered pieces were removed and used to make molds of the new fiberglass front fascia, fenders, quarter-panel extensions, and spoiler. Using GMMG technician Ron Mowen's red Z28 as the donor pilot car, clay was used to mimic the contours of the Sunoco show car, which sat next to it in the shop. Since the Sunoco car was a one-off, GM did not have the means or ability to reproduce the panels and hood, but it did have the specs as well as designers Kip Wasenko and Randy Wittine at hand to recreate the process. Heinricy agreed to help out and push things along as quickly as possible with the stipulation that this new special edition car would have to carry the complete body kit (including the wing and quarter-panels). Remembering the widebody Sunoco-blue/Penske show car, which was modeled after Mark Donahue's '69 Camaro race car, Matt contacted John Heinricy of GM Performance Division to see about obtaining the same frontend pieces that gave the Sunoco car such distinction. This go-round, GMMG owner Matt Murphy insisted things be taken yet one more step further than the high-dollar ZL1s.
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