78 Indy pace car VINs

[bigblockjon]

About 15 years ago I pulled what appeared to be an Indy pace car out of the woods. The man I bought it from said it had been sitting there when he bought the house and since he was getting ready to sell the house he needed to clean the yard. Probably like most of us I have so many projects that this car has sat in the back of my garage all this time. I finally got around to looking at it just the other day to figure out what I was going to do with it. It had been turned into a race car at some point the only interior parts left where the dashboard the center console and the silver carpet. So I decided to check the VIN and see what options this particular car had. Much to my surprise the last six numbers did not start with a 9 like all pace cars are supposed to. So I'm wondering where there any pace cars with Vin's that didn't start with the number 9? This car has been sitting since the 90s and was raced before then. It has all the correct pieces and color schemes and badges. I can't see someone cloning a 1978 Corvette pace car to this detail just to race it. Can anyone help me?

[rpoz78]

Hi Bigblockjon,

All 1978 Pace Cars VIN’s have the 9 as their eighth digit of their VIN’s with two exceptions. These two are actual Pace Cars, used at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway along with two other Pace Cars with the 9 as their eighth digit VIN numbers 9000001 and 900002. There was only four 1978 Corvette Pace Car at Indy in May of 78.

VIN number 1Z8748S416658 is sitting in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Museum. This car was a pre-production pilot line car, pulled from the production line and modified to Z78 (Pace Car) configuration. It saw service at Indy, used by the Chief Steward as the Pace Car during practice sessions and during qualifications. On May 28th the day of the race, it sat at the head of pit row so it could be used as the backup Pace Car if the designated Pace Car broke or could not be used for some reason.

VIN number 1Z8748S400006 is owned by a Chevrolet Dealer in Kansas. The Dealer purchased it at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Palm Beach, Florida on April 11th, 2009. It has a scrap title and the purchase price was $29,700. This car was used by the Chevrolet Engineers as the prototype to develop the production Pace Cars. Chevrolet used it for promotions and it was used at Indy as one of the three Parade Lap cars before the start of the race. After the race, United States Auto Club (USAC) officials used it as a Pace Car for the rest of the 1978 Championship Car series racing season.

All other 1978 Corvette Pace Cars have the 9 as the eighth digit in their VIN. The VIN’s ran from 1Z8748S900001 through 1Z8748S906502, putting total production (including the two non-9 VIN cars) at 6504.

Now as for cloning… in 1978, Dealers were getting as much as $25,000 to $30,000 for a car that had a sticker price of $14,000 plus. It has been documented that one Dealer was asking $75,000 for his Pace Car. There were multiple examples of people purchasing base model Corvettes (sticker priced in the $9,000 plus range) and cloning the Pace Car then reselling them as pace cars. I personally saw one at a car show two years ago when I took mine, the VIN had been removed. Cloning or just painting a 78 Corvette to look like a Pace Car is not uncommon. I've seen several examples of these with the owners not claiming it as a pace car, they just liked the paint scheme.

I hope this helps.

RPO-Z78