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1978 Pace Car numbers

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Old Dec 26, 2015 | 01:27 AM
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Default 1978 Pace Car numbers

Hi all,

I'm planning on looking at 2 '78 Indy Pace Cars this coming week, one an L82 and one an L48. My question is, is there any breakdown of production numbers for the 6,502 Pace Cars (i.e., L48 V. L82, 4-speed V. automatic)? I read somewhere online that only about 25% of the '78 Pace Cars left the factory with the L82 engine?
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Old Dec 26, 2015 | 04:23 AM
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Originally Posted by PSU 98
Hi all,

I'm planning on looking at 2 '78 Indy Pace Cars this coming week, one an L82 and one an L48. My question is, is there any breakdown of production numbers for the 6,502 Pace Cars (i.e., L48 V. L82, 4-speed V. automatic)? I read somewhere online that only about 25% of the '78 Pace Cars left the factory with the L82 engine?
If you look around enough, you'll find much inconsistency in regards to 1978 Pace Car numbers...Chevrolet did not publish definitive numbers so over the years there has persisted much guesswork. Probably the most common is that only 200 L82 Pace Cars were shipped with an M21 four-speed and is the most rare. These numbers were spun probably some owner who sought to profiteer from an L82 M21 Pace Car squirreled away and who had paid too much.

So about 46 percent of Pace Cars were built with an L82 and 512 of those were shipped with the M21 four-speed. The most rare Pace Car is the L48 M20 power team with only 70 built with this configuration.

Hope this helps!
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Old Dec 26, 2015 | 08:14 AM
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This subject has been discussed before and reference to these numbers supposedly came from the December 1978 issue of Vette Vues Magazine, page 15.

L48 4spd 70
L48 auto 3434
L82 4spd MM4 114
L82 4spd M21 (close ratio) 512
L82 auto 2384

The total comes to 6514.
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