1978 Pace Car with 12 Miles! on eBay..

[Ken's67]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4564157850

I seen a '78 Pace Car listed on eBay with 12 miles on it.
(item number:4564157850)

I started to think. How many of these cars, ('78 Pace Cars), are still tucked away somewhere with next to no miles on them.

 

[Ripp 73]

I don't know wether to :cry or :L or just be :confused. I thought Corvettes were meant to be driven. I guess some people feel they are pieces of art work to be put away and not seen like so many pieces of other art. Oh well.. to each their own.

 

[kiwi vet]

For Sale, One very large antique walnut picture frame with guilded gold edges, ideal for 78 corvette Pace Car display, is matching numbers grain - RPO No RT1. Comes complete with reinforced free standing concrete wall to hang it off. Hernea from moving it - optional.

Kiwi Vette

PS: This is a serious sale, no veneer kickers PLEASE!!!!!!

 

[78SilvAnniv]

I bet the cosmetics (interior/exterior) look great, but I'd hate to think what condition the seals and gaskets are in. :eek

Heidi

 

[Eric]

I bet the cosmetics (interior/exterior) look great, but I'd hate to think what condition the seals and gaskets are in. :eek

Heidi

Bingo! I hate to see these cars come up. Unless the owner has been anal about maintianing the car (and some are) the new owner has a car that is a museum piece and not much else unless he/she has a lot of time on their hands to do a lot of flushing and replacing.

That said, I still think it would be cool to have one like that so I could break it in.

 

[JJS]

I find it amzing that there are so many of these low/no mile '78 pace cars still out there. I remember thinking how beautiful they were when they first came out, and I also remember a lot of people were buying them just to put them away. I don't know what they went for back then, probably just under $10k, but I don't see them fetching huge sums of money, even after all these years. I've seen them (low milage pace cars) for well under $30k as recently as last year. I'd think they'd need a lot of work to get them back to driving condition (gaskets, seals, brakes, etc).

 

[craig32]

This all sounds familiar. Here in PA in the WB/S television viewing area, they covered a story about a dealership that had one the owner kept. He died or something and they were selling the car, which had like 6 or 8 miles on it. They were trailering it to a garage to 'freshen it up' before they put it on the auction block. Never heard how the story ended tho, maybe they haven't sold it yet. . .

 

[MidShark]

The base Corvette was at $9352.00 that year (plus options), while the Pace Cars were pretty decked out already for $13,653.00.

If memory serves, a lot of the reason so many cars were stashed away was because of a Wall Street Journal article claiming that these cars would be a great investment, and probably shoot up in value to about $50,000 in a short time. I guess that didn't quite happen!

Rich

 

[6 Shooter]

A little 1978 Corvette info . . .

The base Corvette was at $9352.00 that year . . .

Vette-net - 1978 Corvette Stingray Info

 

[lucky76]

I want to drive my car, not look at it.

 

[CQRT]

We lived in Ohio at the time and belonged to the Corvette Club at McDorman Chevrolet near Columbus (one of the forum sponsors). Mr. McDorman had squirreled away a couple of L-82 Pace Cars right off the transporter and into his shed at the rear of the property.
We also saw several of them from dealerships and private parties go for $25k. I believe this collector in Cleveland has a building full of wonderful cars- but it really does seem a shame not to drive them! It'll be interesting to see what it brings on E-Bay. I think I'd rather try one of the Barrett-Jackson auctions as a real measure of the cars worth.

Regards-

 

[craig32]

hey all,
hope this makes you feel better . . . at a Corvette show here last month, out of 108 Corvettes in attendance, there were 3 78 pace cars there - of course they were too new to win prizes
Craig

 

[yellow_2002_germany]

The 78 Pace Cars were accompanied by a huge amount of hype including in the Wall Street Journal. Many people bought them for waaaaaay over sticker, I'm talking paying over $20,000 for one. They figured if they put it away long enough they would go up. Since there was one made per dealer at the time the number made was about 6509. As you can see by that number they just aren't that rare at all. The main options you had were engine type and tranny type. It came with the 255 tires and the aluminum wheels with red stripe. The base price also included the AM/AF Stereo 8-track. The CB radio was on option. All PCs had the 79 style seats.

The really high money PCs are the L-82 4-speeds. From working the numbers about 200 of them were made. A low miles one of those could fetch some fancy dollars. One thing that makes the PCs easy to spot is the VIN. They had a separate VIN sequence than the regular run 78s. Regular run 78s included the SA models.

If you look at any issue of Hemming's Motor News you will see that there are many low miles PCs available. However, the price is increasing.

 

[srs244]

actually the story of the pace car is a bit different that the preceeding posts. the journal article came out at a time when GM had announced that there were only going to be 600 of the cars produced as a tribute to the first time corvette was chosen to pace the indy 500. according to dave mcclendon in his book corvette from the inside, (he was the chief engineer at corvette until approx 1992), the pace cars actually used in 78 were all hand picked and re-worked to make certain they would perform at the track (unlike those in 86 which GM touted as "cars off the line" to verify the performance of the 1986 pace car corvette and hence the 86 model year vehicles which had suffered some slings and arrows as a result of their struggles to get the car EPA certified during the mid 70's and the "de-tuneing" that had to be used to make it compliant). as soon as the word of the 600 only production (and fueled a bit by the 76 eldorado convertible stash away mentality) got around, people started lining up at dealerships and offering all types of ridiculous amounts to make sure they got one of the 600. of course many of the smaller dealerships seeing this potential windfall and realizing that they stood virtually no chance of getting one of the 600 moaned and created such a firestorm that GM then decided that they would produce 1 vehicle (pace car) for each of the dealers it had in the US and canada (6505). it came equipped with pretty much everything as standard equipment with the exception of gymkana suspension, cruise control, L82 350 powerplant, 4speed, and tire size upgrade (i'm sure there were a couple of others that i've forgotten) but it had pw, p-locks, ps, pb, a/c rear defroster, HD battery, am/fm/8trk stereo radio, aluminum wheels, etc as "standard" package options (limited edition) . it had a "sticker" price of $13865 or thereablouts depending on delivery charges. even with 6505 being made, people still figured it would be very "collectible" and they just stored them. considering that one of these 12 mile cars is worth about $27,000 or so (and as heidi so accurately points out will require loads of attention to all the seals not to mention the probable oil pan and trans pan gunk which means additional $$$) if you calculate the return on investment (approximately 13,000 over 27 years) it doesn't look like much of an "investment" to me (and that doesn't even factor for inflation, lol). unless you have the ego to show off your "prizes", you can always visit a museum, LOL!! like someone once said "these boots are made for walking" and these cars were meant to be driven and enjoyed!!

steve

 

[silverja]

I saw this one at a NCRS Chapter meet with 35 miles on it.

I don't get this low mileage speculation craze.

 

[OldSkool]

What a waste. Cars are meant to be driven, not stored away.

I like what it says in the ad: "a car of this caliber should not be driven". Riiiight. Guys like Jay Leno drive cars worth MILLIONS, and this yahoo won't drive a Vette worth a lowsy 27k. Now lets see, the car sold for 13k or so new, is 27 years old, and now worth 27k (and only is someone is willing to pay that much). So that's an appreciation of 14k or so over 27 years. So basically, he made 500 bucks for every year he didn't drive his Vette. Seems like a big sacrifice to make for 500 bucks a year. He'd have been better off buying 13k worth of savings bonds back in '78.

Now the thing is probably barely driveable, all the seals must be junk, and the brakes barely work, as it says in the ad. Plus the tires are most likely junk also.

 

[lnirenberg]

The ebay listing states--
The engine was properly "Fogged" before placed into storage.

My brain must have been properly fogged when it was put into storage hence I have no idea what this means.

 

[JimVette]

W.C used to describe it as one born every minute. When it comes to NEW cars bought as an investment then there is dozens born every day, and the dealers just love them.

 

[Daryllawman]

Vettes were made to be driven not hung on the wall.....what a waste to have a wall hanger......MO !