(Originally published May 24, 2013) As we accelerate into “Turn One” of Race Weekend, we continue our look back at previous Indianapolis 500 Pace Cars. We have reached a point in Pace Car history where, with rare exceptions, this was an annual GM event. However, there certainly was more variety than the unbroken string of Chevrolets we’ve seen over the past twelve years.
Pontiac was chosen to pace the race in 1980, its first appearance since 1958. It is interesting to note that as much as the Pete Estes/John DeLorean years at Pontiac were known for performance, not a single Poncho paced the 500 during their time. For 1980, the 301 Turbo-powered Trans Am was the car. It’s of interest that the same cars were used to pace that year’s Daytona 500 as well, which was a first. Johnnie Parsons, winner of the 1950 race, was the driver at the start of the race, but Don Bailey took over during yellow-flag periods. In this case, there’s very little information to be found about the specs of the actual Pace Car. It appears that five cars were prepared for Pace Car duty, and sources seem to indicate that “very little” modification was required to come up to Pace Car spec. However, nobody goes into detail about just what the “very little” actually entailed. There was one significant modification: The bird decal on the hood was made extra-large.
One interesting question surfaced in my research. It is claimed that the 1982 Pace Car was the first to use a yellow strobe light mounted on top. However, this photo clearly shows the strobe affixed to the top of the 1980 Trans Am. Could this have been a Daytona picture instead of an Indy picture? Surely someone out there knows.
Pontiac made 5,700 replicas of the 1980 Pace Car. The color scheme of white with charcoal trim was similar to that of the Tenth Anniversary edition from 1979. These seem to have been preserved in decent numbers, and many are available for sale on the web. We previously published a piece on the Turbo Trans Am (here) that contains a lot more information on the basic car.
In 1981, Buick was back with another V6, this time in a Regal. There were two cars prepared for pace duty, both ASC-modified with a convertible rear roof section and a special interior. The engines were specially prepared 4.1-liter Buick V6s that were naturally aspirated, unlike the turbocharged engines of 1976. (Yes, I realize that the “turbo6” logo appeared on the cars. It just looked cool, so let it go.) The specially prepared engines used a 12.5:1 compression ratio and gnereated 281 bhp @5100 rpm and 262 ft/lbs of torque at 4,000 rpm. The car was driven by Duke Nalon, who made ten starts at Indy between 1938 and 1953.
In a turnabout from the several years prior, Buick made only 150 replicas for sale to the public, all of which were used at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in some capacity. Although these did not, of course, have the extra-powered engines, they came equipped with decals, T-tops and a dash plaque bearing the sequential number of that particular car. These cars were quite similar to the 1982 Regal Grand National.
There has been some confusion about the 1981 Pace Car, with some people thinking that the Turbo Trans Am was back for a second year. The Trans Am did return for a repeat of its 1980 role at NASCAR’s Daytona 500, but not at Indy.
Nineteen eighty-two would return a Camaro to Pace Car duty. I suppose it was fitting that the new third-generation Camaro would be the third Camaro to pace the race. This car used an aluminum-block version of the 5.7-liter V8 that had been blueprinted and hand-assembled by GM Engineering.
The press kit informed the public that the engine was good for “over 250 bhp” – how much over, they would not say. Still, that was not a bad figure in 1982. The two actual Pace Cars were the first to be fitted with the flashing yellow lights that replaced yellow flags the following year, thus making the ’82 car the only one ever equipped with both lights and flags. Jim Rathmann would drive the car at the start of the race, and longtime track employee Don Bailey would take it from there.
In addition to the real Pace Cars, Chevrolet provided another 50 or so Camaros for track use, and made 6,000 replicas for public sale. These were powered by a 305 V8 with either a four-barrel carburetor or Crossfire injection. Unlike their colors and graphics, options and equipment could vary widely. Unfortunately, the three-speed THM200C –not one of GM’s more durable units–was the automatic transmission that was offered. The ’82 Camaro was also chosen as Motor Trend‘s Car of the Year, an award that did not often coincide with Indy’s choice of a Pace Car.
Buick was becoming a regular at Pace Car duty, and was back for 1983. In a nod to an earlier age, the Riviera convertible was chosen to celebrate the Riv’s twentieth anniversary. It was the most old-school Pace Car in quite a few years, harkening back in concept to the ’59 Electra 225. However, instead of a big nailhead V8, this car would boast a twin turbo 3.8-liter V6–another of the seemingly endless variations of turbo Buicks seen at the track since 1976.
Rivieraconvertible.com has an excellent page (here) with loads of technical information, including the fact that the car produced over 350 horsepower. Take THAT, Chevy!
Photo source: Deansgarage.com
As it turns out, maybe all that power really was necessary. According to Gary Smith (here), who had a hand in the exterior design of several Buick Pace Cars, the Riv generated the highest drag of any Pace Car that had been tested in the wind tunnel until that time.
In addition to about 50 Festival cars, Buick offered another 500 Riviera hardtops (designated as Riviera XX) as replicas. Civilians got no turbos, only a choice between the 4.1 V6 and the 307 V8. These cars were painted to match the Pace Cars, and included special rocker panel and drip moldings anodized in dark brown. The cars also came with wire wheels, gold-stripe Uniroyal tires and four-wheel disc brakes. It is interesting that even though Buick built over 1,700 Riviera convertibles that year, none was trimmed out as a Pace Car replica. Times had certainly changed since 1959.
The 1984 race was paced by a Pontiac Fiero, which is said to be the only mid-engined car to ever pace the race, and one of the few four-cylinder cars to do so (and the first since the 1912 Stutz). The car was powered by a specially built 2.7-liter Super Duty four that produced a reported 232 horsepower. A specially fabricated, periscope-style air intake above the roof helped cool the naturally aspirated and carbureted engine. One of the two purpose-built cars turned a lap at 136 mph. John Callies, head of Pontiac’s Performance Motorsport division drove the car to start the race and Don Bailey, in keeping with custom, took it from there.
Pontiac built 2,000 Pace Car replicas in 1984. Unfortunately, the 2.5-liter Iron Duke (rated at 92 horsepower) made for a very un-Pace Car-like experience with cars sold to the public. The bodywork, however, set the car apart, and Pontiac reused it to trim the 1985 Fiero GT. These Pace Car replicas do not seem to have the following enjoyed by many of the others. First, it’s a first-year Fiero. Enough said? Another issue is that the red-and-light gray leather interiors are virtually impossible to recreate today without extensive custom fabrication, since none of its unique parts is being commercially reproduced. According to at least one classic car valuation site, you should be able to score a primo Fiero Pace Car replica (by far the most valuable version of the ’84 Fiero) for a touch over $7K–chump change for your own personal piece of mobile Indy memorobilia.
This wraps up this year’s walking tour of Indy Pace Cars. We have run the gamut, from a ’65 Fury to an ’84 Fiero. We have seen a near-disastrous crash. Mostly, though, we have seen a near-complete change in the definition of a Pace Car. The days of the showroom stock pacer have given way to specially built and highly customized promotional vehicles. There is another race in a couple of days (paced this year by the new Corvette, and backed up by an impressive batch of electric-blue Camaro convertible Festival cars), after which the time for Indy retrospectives will be over for another year.
If there is sufficient interest, we can pick up the series again next year–or, perhaps start on some Star Wars-style “Prequels” to cover some of the pre-war stuff. Or maybe even take a year off, if I have over-informed the CC readership on this topic. In any case, let’s all grab a cold brew and catch “the greatest spectacle in racing.”
You can find previous installments of this series with these links: Part 1 (1946-49), Part 2 (1950-54), Part 3 (1955-59), Part 4 (1960-64), Part 5 (1965-69), Part 6 (1970-74) and Part 7 (1975-79).
I remedied the 301 turbo in my trans am buy replacing it with a built old rocket 455. I remember that if the kickdown cable.was connected and you kicked it down I was instantly sideways. As tickets where mounting to a loss of liscence I unhooked it and left it at that. My favorite memorie was of people thinking it couldnt handle a turn… I would.proove them wrong up in the twisty mountain roads. even with the stock 3.08 diff and the kickdown connected I could steer it with the throttle easily. I wish now that I never sold it. My mechanic at the time raped it of all its bits including the front sub frame and built a 55 chevy truck. because of the added lightness and a more mature driver(at that time) he could get 30 mpg from it. Which I thought was impressive at the time.
A wise choice. I helped my friend remedy his non-turbo 301 trans am with a 68 Pontiac 400, which also helped it quite a bit.
Count me in as one of the people surprised how well those Trans Ams could handle, even with a heavy Pontiac or Olds V8 up front. My 65 Mustang (with a high compression 289), was quicker to 60 , but even with the extra weight, the TA was better in the turns. This is probably more of a statement about how badly the 60’s Mustangs handled, but still I’d have thought the extra 500 to 800 lbs on the TA would have made up the difference, and it didn’t.
I always that the 301 turbo would be a collectable…. Rise in value. But they never really did. The 89 turbo trans am did go up. I always liked the typhoon/cyclones…. I think those used a turbo 4.3.
Maybe it just hasn’t risen in value yet? I’d have thought they’d be collectible someday too.
“These [Fiero] Pace Car replicas do not seem to have the following enjoyed by many of the others…”
So Junqueboi only has three, then? 🙂
I’ll take the Riv roadster with goldlines and real wires.
Ha ha, good one Cap’n. 🙂
Replacements for those goldlines would be hard to come by today, probably from Coker or Diamond Back Tires.
Out of this bunch, my favorite would have to be the 1980 Trans Am; normally not my kind of car, but the 2-tone beige and the generic looking decals on the Riv don’t do it for me.
My Fiero collection is Indy-less: poor me! There’s been a Craigslist ad totally tempting me though — $1,500 for an Indy with incomplete 4.9 Allante engine/5-speed AND an ’87 GT parts-car. They don’t get much cheaper than that.
Some clown has been spamming Craigslist for the last few months, repeatedly posting an ’82 Z28 Pace Car that’s been sitting in the grass for years. He’s down to $2,700 and I will continue to flag his ads as spam.
Am I reading this right, JB? A V8 in a Fiero? I imagine it would stick out the top with velocity stacks like an old school Hot Wheels car. 🙂
A local business owner in the same strip mall my friend’s dad based his locksmith business had TWO SBC swapped fieros, one a red 85(I think, it wasn’t the fastback) with TPI 350, and the other a darker red/silver 88 GT with a LT1. I was only ~13 at the time he had them so my yardstick of speed was pretty narrow but I got a ride in the 85 once and to this day I still think it’s the fastest car I’ve ever ridden in.
Believe it or not you couldn’t tell anything out of the ordinary was powering them from the outside.
“I imagine it would stick out the top with velocity stacks like an old school Hot Wheels car. ?”
Well that look sure seemed cool to us, when we were kids! 🙂
I have thoroughly enjoyed this series. My vote would be to pick up again next year with a series of prequels.
Agreed !!!
+100! Moar, pleeze… 😉
What, no 1985 – 1989?
Yeah, come on, we gotta cover the awesome 1985 Olds Cutlass Calais Pace Car(no kidding) driven by Rockford himself, Mr. James Garner!
I kinda figured that you would love the “All GM (almost) All the Time” theme of modern Pace Cars. 🙂
I will admit that I found this crop more interesting than I thought I would at first. And I would really like to cover the Beretta, don’t ask me why. Anyway, we have 11 months to think it over. These pieces are the closest thing to work of anything I do here at CC. All of the internet and photo research of 5 normal CC pieces each week. And then I go and get all OCD and make myself do four weeks worth, to the exclusion of any regular CC pieces. Like with boat ownership, it feels great when I start and when I stop. 🙂
I can well relate, and appreciate what it takes to do something like this, on several levels!
I was really looking forward to the Reliant K Pace Car writeup…oh,wait…
Close, 1987 Pace Car was a LeBaron convertible.
Can we get to the current examples somehow.? I am interested in all of them. IAll year long, go for it, there will always be something else to focus on next May.
I was short of time this week, and did not really think about this until I was finished. This installment makes a good tie-in to our “where did GM go wrong” discussion of earlier this week. Other than the Turbo 301 in the Trans Am, every one of these Pace Cars was a spare-no-expense custom car. Almost the 1980s equivalent of the Motorama show cars of the ’50s.
Every one of them was a clean-sheet, hand built engine nowhere remotely like you could buy. A 4.1 V6 with over 12:1 compression? An aluminum block 5.7? A twin-turbo 3.8 V6? And my favorite is the one-off non-turbo, non-FI 2.7L four in the Fiero that could do a 136 mph lap at Indy. Even the factory 301 Turbo was a fairly ambitious undertaking.
I suppose GM should be praised for jumping into the gap with some hot and interesting cars in an era where the price of admission for a Pace Car had risen so dramatically that there was rarely interest from Ford and Chrysler. It also shows us that GM’s technical mojo was certainly there in the early 80s. If nothing else, it shows what the General was capable of when a talented team could largely operate under the bureaucracy’s radar.
I will admit that I had mostly stopped paying attention to Pace Cars in this era, and I learned quite a lot about what unique and special cars these were.
Plus they could do those with the freedom of not having to meet any kind of EPA standards. I know that a good number of these are at the indy museum, I wonder if they ever take them out for a run, I would love to drive the twin turbo Riviera.
I would like to see the dashboards on some of these, they must have had to customize the gauge clusters since most of these cars were 85mph/idiot light dashes. I know that on the 77 Delta Pace Car, they used an export 200kph speedo geared to mph!
Thanks for that. My youthful Indy interest kind of faded during the eighties, so much of this is new to me, or stuff that my memory banks purged. I’ll take the twin-turbo Riviera convertible, please….
I remember those half-convertible Regals, the dad of one of my friends in high school owned a Pontiac dealership and had an incredible collection of GM cars dating back to the 60s. I also have always loved the 80 T/A pace cars. They are also not outrageously expensive if you want a historic car.
I never knew the Regal pace car was not turbocharged, I automatically thought it was because of the turbo 6 logos, this one does have the red and orange turbo 6 logo, though there is a solid red logo that was used for a very short perior on non-turbo performace Buicks like the rare 86 Century GS and the ultra rare 86 LeSabre Grand National.
Except for the difference in colors the decal and two tone package on the Turbo Trans Am pace car is exactly the same as the 1979 10th Anniversary Trans Am, except that the 10th’s had the silver “space suit” leather like the 78 Corvette Pace Cars, while the 80 Pace Car’s had the hobnail cloth inserts, and the obvious decal change from the shaker hood to the turbo hood.
I think Buick took a bit of a liberal use of the turbo 6 logo. On my 1989 Buick Century(in which the only “turbo” in the car was the turbomatic trans) the underhood insulation rug had the Turbo 6 logo on it
It always very closely associated with the turbo cars, but it also was known as the “Power 6” logo since Buick was really pushing the power of the injected 3.8, the early MFI 3.8’s in the C-bodies had a “6” logo on the intake.
http://www.beforeblack.net/v6logo.htm
86 LeSabre Grand National Power 6 logo.
What you guys are calling “Turbo6” is actually “Power6”. The all red symbolizes Normally Aspirated and the two tone is “Turbo”. I know the turbo decals are on the 81 Regal pacer but later on this is why there were two different emblems. As for the emblem on some of the 85-87 vintage NA motors found on the FWD cars those were left over from the 84-85 turbo engine program. Some had SFI 6 on a red background instead of a Power6. Not a good detailed pic but here is a pic from one of my Riviera T-Types showing that emblem on the plenum of the intake manifold. You can by these reproduced today from several of the GN aftermarket suppliers.
“Although these did not, of course, have the extra-powered engines, they came equipped with decals, T-tops and a dash plaque bearing the sequential number of that particular car. These cars were quite similar to the 1982 Regal Grand National.”
I would disagree with this statement. The only thing in common was the Regal body and name. 81 Pace Car Replicas all had the NA 231 V-6. The 82 GN was either NA 4.1 or carb turbo 3.8. Pacers had red interiors and GN had gray interior with Lear Seigler seats. Now the really neat feature of the 81 Pacer was its hand made leather wrapped steering wheels. The GN received a production leather wrapped wheel.
“It is interesting that even though Buick built over 1,700 Riviera convertibles that year, none was trimmed out as a Pace Car replica.”
I would disagree with that statement. http://www.rivieraconvertible.com/pacecar.htm Click on that link to the Riviera convertible and scroll down to the Riviera convert Pace Car replica that is from the GM Collection auction of 2009. It’s still for sale somewhere in KS. There may have been two built and the one on the link has a production single carb turbo motor in it. There were 502 replicas built. 500 solid roofs and these 2 drop head coupes. The solid roofs all got Olds 307 motors.
As for the Riviera, I was making the point that none of the replicas (which I consider the cars sold to the public) were convertibles. The one you refer to was a special one-off (if there were two, even the people on the website can’t actually confirm it) built specially for the race festivities. The car actually started life as an 82 model, as I read that piece. It was probably a low-budget way to have an extra Pace Car for a parade, without the expense of building another twin turbo V6.
I wonder how rare those 84 GMC S15/Jimmy pace trucks are?
I didn’t even know they made one, but I can recall seeing a 2 tone Jimmy like the one in the picture, and wondering who was the tool that put white Trans Am alloy wheels on their Jimmy, now I find out, when I see the photo above, that it came that way.
There have been “Indy Edition” trucks and vans every year for years. These would make a very interesting series too, but pictures of them are so much harder to come by. I think that a lot of them stay around locally after the race, and end up at dealers here.
A lot of them eventually have the decals scraped off and just drive them like normal trucks.
I have known at least two people in the 80s or 90s that bought Chevy or GMC vans that had been “Official Trucks”. One was the bright yellow from the year that the Beretta paced (94?) and another was a friend who bought a van and his kids insisted that the Indy decals stay on.
I assume that there were full size GMC trucks used too?
Its funny that GMC was the defacto Indy Truck when ever any GM division that wasn’t Chevrolet paced the race.
There is a 93 Chevy 1500 Pace Truck down here that I see on the road every once in a while, I have never seen it stopped to get a pic.
The ’93s seem to be the most common of the “pace trucks.” I did find this 1980 GMC on ebay a few months ago though.
Mostly by coincidence, today I came across this article specifically about the wire wheels used on the ’83 Riviera pace car and the Riviera XX.
http://www.hemmings.com/hmn/stories/2012/07/01/hmn_feature23.html
“The bird decal on the hood was made extra-large.”
I’m glad you said that I was thinking I don’t remember the chicken ever being that big! Love those wheels on the T/A.
I love the enlarged chicken. I can only imagine the conversation: “Better make the bird bigger, Herb – otherwise nobody may realize that this is a Trans Am.”
As an aside, I saw a picture of the GMC truck they used as the Official Truck in 1980. Big-assed bird on the hood of it, too.
Crazy, why would they even put the hood bird on a truck?
The thing is so smudgy, it barely looks like a bird. More like a “V” of chest hair hanging out of Tony Monaro’s disco shirt.
Disco Duck?
I never thought an ’80 model C-truck could look so good. Want badly!!
I just want to know what Dukes of Hazzard character should be driving one in my head…..
The Silver Anniversary Trans Am in 79 also sported the extra large bird, just like the Pace Car. The tips of the wings actually extend onto the fenders. I lusted after these cars ever since the first Smokey and the Bandit, and therefore know way too much about them. I think as I got older, I like my cars better without all of the graphics. But the look still seems to work on these for some reason.
I was still in high school when Smokey was released, but every tool in town with a few bux bought a S/E black & gold T/A shortly after, so I got really tired of seeing those cars.
When the 79’s were first shown, I was blown away by the graphics on the car. Even back then, the S/E’s success was engendering contempt, but the reboot of the design for 79 was exuberant but refreshing at the same time.
I have been a fan ever since…
Looks like the same size bird as normal turbo T/A’s– In 1981 Pontiac did a Daytona 500 Pace car, very similar.
Love the pace car Trans Am! That was always a favorite of mine, great color combo. The big bird decal used on this and the 10th anniversary is just so cool looking.
The Fiero is cool too, the one in the first pic with the not stock wheels I find especially alluring for some reason.
+1
That Fiero pic above is quite flattering and accentuates its sleek lines.
I noticed few 80 t/as as having the center mounted yellow strobe @ indy not all…the daytona car had a “large cross bar” with yellow storbes at ends…found car with nascar marking with the indy style strobe…no holes in bumper for firestone flags at indy..???
Indy car with Strobe does have holes under rear bumper. Bumper had been replaced.
My parents had an ’88 Indy Suburban – I’m not sure how or why they got it, but it went to my brother and lasted forever.
I missed this series the first time around, so thanks for reposting. Thoroughly enjoyable reading.
Again, great series. Very well done.
Of this group, my favorite is the ’82 Camaro. Chevy had a display in the infield at the 500 and I still have the pace car poster they gave away that year. Eventually, my wife would have an ’82 Camaro, though not a pace car.
’82 was a great race too, with Gordon Johncock out dueling Rick Mears in what would be one of the closest finishes ever.
I didn’t read most of the comments so forgive me if this has been extensively covered. But it speaks volumes about what is/was wrong with GM….and Pontiac in particular that the “performance division” rarely fielded a pace car while Buick (which has/had a history of not being able to decide if it was a performance division or not) fielded many (more) pace cars.
And the ultimate irony? The “TURBO” pace car….that wasn’t. And GM having the nerve to advertise that car as a turbo….or was it just to get folks to associate Buicks and turbocharging? Let the buyers sort it out?
Thanks JP , that %#&* song and visual will be stuck in my head all day!
This is what makes CC so great – taking a deep dive into a topic that many (including me) would not think of, and thereby illuminating little-known aspects of automotive history – in this case, showing what GM could still do in the 1980’s when the engineers were given a clean slate.
I wonder if the ‘race on Sunday, sell on Monday’ saying works with these Indy pace cars. I mean do the model selected for pace car duties sell more ordinary models than before?