tom benjamin

Dose any one have an idea of the 6,502 1978 pace cars that were built- aprox how many are left????????help please, even if its a guess based on stats. or other, thanks.

Shark Racer

I've got one, so that's one left for sure.

Kerrmudgeon

There's tons of them around. I remember the hype put out by GM saying they were limited editions and only so many would be make. Hundreds of people bought them as an investment and put them away, only to learn that there were thousands made. I'd speculate that there are more of these around, and low mile cars, than you could count. You'll never know since a lot of them are still in storage and never registered, just waiting to become "rare".

wombvette

6501

Solid LT1

Only around a 1000 78 Pace cars in never driven just like they came off the showroom floor condition now. These cars were first of many "limited edition" cars that were way overhyped by people as future collectibles. You would have been better off scooping up a pair of used 435HP cars for the same $20K these cars commanded when new. My neighbor has one with under 300 miles on it, it sits alongside his 75 Cosworth Vega, 54 Vette and 93 Red Rose ZR1 Vette at his closed down Chevy dealership. It will be a long time before they are worth what they commanded when they were new on the showroom floor (except for the 54 Vette that is)

thatcorvetteguy

If there anything like the early BB cars there must be 12,000 of the orginal 6,000 built left

v2racing

Shark Racer

lol

I've seen a few fake Pace Cars, they're pretty easy to spot. Usually have the wrong seats or missing the dash plaque. VIN plate is a dead giveaway.

The sentiment of the thread is right though... way too many of these cars have been stored forever because they'd be worth tons of money someday.

They do fetch a higher price than a regular 78 Corvette, though.

7T1vette

Actually, there are likely more of them around now than were made in the first place! Lots of secondary buyers converted non-PC '78s into the Pace Car versions so they could be "cool" too. When purchasing one, you have to check the VIN to be sure what you are buying. I don't know that anyone really knows how many actual PC's are still around....most of them, I'm sure.

bashcraft

Are you thinking of inviting them all to a picnic?

fauxrs

Chevelles particularly - if local shows and cruises are to be believed ALL Chevelles were Red SS454 cars w/ black runway stripes

gbvette62

I can tell you that at least one of the 6,502 is gone. A friend of mine had an L-82, 4 speed one, that his daughter totaled in 82 or 83!

I don't think anyone will ever miss it though, because there are still plenty of them left around here. I have a friend who has 3, and know of at least 5 others, all but one with less than 1,000 miles. There's a Chevy dealer in Delaware who still has his on the showroom floor, it had 48 miles on it the last time I looked.

Easy Mike

My "guess" wouldn't be any different from yours. How many do you think are still out there?

Next question: how would anyone know how many have survived?

jb78L-82

The 78 L-82 4 speed cars are rare-not to mention if a true PC and if it had the gymkhana suspension which it probably did-being an L-82 4 Speed.

78 total porduction all types-approximately 50,000 cars (I can look up the actual numbers if someone is truly interested)

78 L-82's- approximately 12,000 cars out of 50,000 total production

78 L-82's with the 4 speed-approximately 3,300 cars out of 12,000 L-82's out of a total production of 50,000 cars.

Pretty Rare in 78! How many 78 L-82 4 speed pace cars are left out of the 3,300 total cars made in this combination?

The real question is how many 78 L-82 4 speed Gymkhana suspended C3's are left? I would bet not too many!

gbvette62

It was a real one. Besides the L-82 and 4 speed, it also had Gymkhana, which is why he bought it. He had a full race Corvette for autocross and he bought the PC for his wife to run. She won her class at the SCCA Solo Championships in KS once or twice with it. From what I remember, the only modification we made to it was a set of shaved tread Goodyear Wingfoots. They were "nifty" tires in their day, they had both white letters and a pinstripe white wall.

In 81, he sold his autocross car and we built a SCCA GT-1 Corvette to replace it, and went road racing. Since he was no longer doing autocrosses on the weekends, his wife gave it up too and they gave the Pace Car to his daughter. He did buy a Trans-Am for his wife to race in SCCA SSGT, but she didn't run it for long. It was just to much work for us to keep 2 cars running on race weekends.

His daughter fell asleep going to work in Philly one morning, and ran the PC head on into another car, on the Walt Whitman Bridge.

midyearvette

ironically, they had to modify the original to actually pace the race because of lack of power.....
a friend of mine bought one though and it was a great driver and he traded it on an 89 after over 200k miles...

jb78L-82

As a father of 2 girls, I hope that she was alright and the PC protected her-it's only a car!! I love my 78 L-82 4 Speed car and with no pollution control at all, true duals and headers, along with the Holley 4175 carb the car has decent power. I have the OEM designed suspension with everything replaced or upgraded with 255/45/17 ZR tires and it handles like a different car from the OEM setup. It's just fun to drive!!

Sebago Shark

Here's a L82 4 speed Pace with gymkhana (FE7). Only 20,000 miles and they still get kinda ugly under there.
My Silver Ann is also a L82 4 speed but no gymkhana.

jb78L-82

My 78 L-82 4 speed gymkhana looks the same with 65,000 miles but it was undercoated in Oct 77 when it was made!

Texas Stinger

Any others that people know were wrecked? Besides that I'd say most are still around. I own a 76 Eldo vert which was another one of those supposed great investments.

Depending on the shape and bought price, one might have been able to do better or break even (not counting inflation of course) on a 75 Vega or 78 PC before the bad economy hit.