A real Pace Car barn find...13 miles still with its decades of dust. An L82, M38 FE7. Nice photo of the original PF25 oil filter.

exterior

PF 25 oil filter

Also the bottom photo really shows a nice factory engine paint job. Doesn't have a heavy look to it but almost appears as a dusting of paint. The oil plug hasn't even but pulled!

 

13 miles, another never driven Pace Car. I think the only rare Pace Cars, are the ones that have actually been driven.

 

That one is in my garage...56k miles. But...I saw one at Carlisle with 104,000 miles

 

Do you have any additional pictures or the story behind the car? That is so cool. Mine sat in a garage for around 14 years before the former owner purchased it from the original owner so I findf these barn find storys to be really cool!

 

13 miles? I don't know, man, that's pretty high mileage for a pace car. I think if you shop around a little you could find one with only 5-8 miles on it.

Seriously, did you plunk down money and leave with it? Or is it just something cool that you are sharing with us?


Scott

 

Never mind, didn't catch this on the first read-thru.


Scott

 

I remember those.

People were buying them up a at few $K more than list (about $12k list IIRC),and then putting them in garages and asking $25K for the things a few months later.

$12k in 1978 would be about ~$36K now, so i am not sure how well that store and sell later thing worked out after inflation.

Doug

 

Wow, great opportunity! Get it cleaned up, and drive it!

 

People were paying $25,000 for them within days of them hitting the street. As soon as the Wall Street Journal story came out about how "rare and valuable" they were going to be, the market for them went crazy.

A guy in our local Corvette club, bought our club sponsor's Pace Car. He paid $1,000 over sticker (mid $15,000's) for it and agreed to allow the dealer to give out his phone number, to anyone who called the dealer looking for a Pace Car.

He was getting 3-4 calls a day about it initially. He turned down a couple offers of $25,000.

His was an L-48 automatic. He kept it 2 years, put about 2,000 miles on in, started a business and traded it in on a new Chevy Van. The same dealer that sold it to him, gave him about $8,500 for it, as a trade in.

 

Very nice

 

Come on, Hunt!!!!!!!!! We're all drooling over the pics and you fail to mention the story on this one!!

We need details.

 

tell us more!!!

 

Don't make me come there and show you how it's done!

 

I remember the same thing. I never understood folks willing to pay above sticker for something like that. I had a boss who paid $18K for one and planned to make stupid money on it. He stored it also with like 5-10 miles on it. Sold it years later for under $10K.

Saw same thing with the GNX Buicks. And the first ZR-1 Vette's.

You can buy these things all day long today at a good price.

That said...it's a real neat car and a great source of info for everyone.

So did you buy it??


JIM

 

I agree, as it was really just like any other 78' L-82 with different paint. It was kinda like that when C6 ZO6's first came out, but for different reasons. Wasn't really looking to get one, but an out of state forum dealer was offering $1000 bucks off sticker if I sent in a $1000 deposit a year in advance, so went for it. Got the car as promised, but there just weren't any others availible, so most dealers went gouge crazy at $10k- $20k over. Some even got it, but I wouldn't have paid it, as one bought at $20k over isn't worth any more than mine.

 

That's the difference between a true car guy and a true investor. The investors made a quick 10 grand in a few weeks.
I don't think anyone predicted the value would drop like a rock back down to list price the day after the race.

 

Ok...The story is that Bud of Bud’s Chevrolet gets a call from this guy he has known for years and that he has a Pace Car to sell. Apparently the owner needed money. So Bud drives a rollback from Ohio to Michigan to pick up the car. When he rolls open the door, there sits not only a Pace Car, but a silver anniversary car as well…never been titled. The owner has had both cars since 1978, never drove them never and never moved them out of storage. He wasn’t ready to sell the SA that is an L82 with red interior.

The Pace Car has the cloth interior. The interior was still wrapped up in plastic as shipped from the factory to the dealer. Steering wheel had that soft plastic wrap with masking tape to secure it around the wheel. Seats had plastic over them and tags still hung from the turn signal lever. The driver’s side visor has the start instruction sleeve in place. The t-top glass instructions sat on the driver’s console accompanied by the CB mic. I’ve seen the instructions glued to the inside of the t-top glass…so maybe they fell off the glass and were place on the console along the way.

The owner said that he had not looked at the Pace Car for sixteen years. It had the dealer receipt for the 5 gallons gas, the purchase receipt from the dealer and on top of the jack was a build sheet. Its got a $40k price tag on it.

 

We need more pics, show us more, we are waiting.

 

Wow, what a great story. The car will need a bit of going-over, but I would pay money to have the opportunity to buy it!

 

Amazing.

Were you in on this one?