We’ve seen a lot of Pace Car history here on CC, thanks to JPCavanaugh’s excellent series. He has already done the 1975-79 period (click here if you missed it), but just a week ago I saw this 1978 Corvette Pace Car replica as I was leaving the office. It got me to thinking, how many 500 replicas are actually driven, and not just stored in gigantic Ziploc bags?
So, when’s the last time you have seen an Indy 500 Pace Car, replica or otherwise, in traffic? Bonus CC points (no cash value) for the most unusual sightings. And yes, I know they made a ton of ’78 replicas…
I live in Indy. The old pace cars come out in force in May, and then disappear again. I saw one on Friday, a ’98 Corvette.
Last fall their was one of these parked at a local car wash for sale. Because of my lack of interest in corvettes I did not stop, it did look clean though!!
There’s a pace car identical to the one in your photo that lives in our town. See it out quite often in the summer, usually parked at Dairy Queen where I assume they stop for ice cream.
I dig the Brougham badge on the dash, Tom. What’s it from…looks like Cadillac?
It’s off of a ’92 Brougham I found at the local pick-and-pull.
You know I feel like I’ve seen a thousand 78 Corvette pace cars in the flesh at various museums, car shows and cruise nights in my life, but out on the street? Maybe…3, 4 tops.
I used to frequently see the 1998 purple/yellow C5 Corvette pace cars out and about a lot.
When I was living in the Midwest it seemed that the 78 Corvette pace car guys were divided into two camps; either they drove it as a summer fun car and were actually racking up the miles, or they expected it to be worth money and were leaving it on blocks in the garage counting down the days until it would be their lottery ticket.
Someone (it appears to be the 3rd or 4th owner) in Gallup, NM has a Inaugural Brickyard 500 Monte Carlo Pace car that is their daily driver, but I was always under the impression that those cars had the H.O. DOHC 3.4V6 that should have been the head-gasket eating kiss of death for those cars. Or were some built with the 3800V6?
According to Wiki the “Pace Cars” all had the NA 3.8 from the SS. Apparently the Monte Carlo didn’t even pace the Indy 500, it was some sort of NASCAR tie in. They were built 2000-2003.
Yeah the “Brickyard 400” is a NASCAR race. I’ve taken the article to generically be about pace cars, although usually Pace Cars in the USA are Indianapolis cars.
Cars I’d love to see in person and out on the street would be the Buick and Oldsmobile pace cars of the 70s. I’ve never seen those cars anywhere other than online or in print.
What Jim Grey said. Awhile back I did see an electric blue with white racing stripes Dodge Ram pickup. I did not remember until later that that was the “Official Truck” one of the years the Viper paced. All the decals were off and it was pretty beat.
Like this
I always liked those pace car Corvettes. I always thought they had some of the nicest interiors of any of the early Corvettes. That and I just think they look good in that two tone color.
there is a nice 1980 Turbo T/A pace car replica that cruises in my area, it was among myself and 500ish other old cars in our RetroFest cruise this weekend.
I love your Brougham dash badge. What car are you driving?
Volvo V50 wagon. About the last car you’d expect to see with Brougham badging 🙂
I could fit one of those in a WM, VE or FG.
Just imagine the reaction of the locals, specially if fitted to an Omega or XT.
Although, a “Classic” one would also be nice.
We own a ’69 Camaro Pace Car. We try to have it out at least a couple times a year, and for a number of years it was a daily driver for my dad. The thing has over 100k miles on the clock.
… that being said, you have to know what you’re looking for. We took the goofy Pace Car decals off because, let’s face it, nobody wants to go driving around with those things on.
Ah, I remember those cars. My father and I went on a charter from Chicago to Indy for the first day of time trials. Somewhere I should still have pictures of the parade with the pace car and the replicas. Good times, even if much of the TT were rained out that day.
I usually preferred the ’70 Camaro, but the ’69 looked really good in that color scheme. Just glad the ’69 Mustang wasn’t the pace car that year…
If I had one as a daily driver, I would probably feel differently, but if I owned a car now that was originally a pace car edition, I think I would want to put the decals back on it.
For a moment I thought I spotted a Corvette pace car at a stoplight the other day, but it must have been a 1978 silver anniversary edition ‘Vette because it was the two-tone silver.
Do I get any points for actually having owned a pace car? Sold my ’75 Buick Century about 10 years ago, still wishing I hadn’t. It ran great, the a/c blew cold, and all the options worked. I’ll try to scan in a pic if I can find one.
My 1981 Nascar Trans Am pace car replica