There were 6,502 Corvette Pace Cars built by Chevrolet in 1978. This example has only 99 original miles on the odometer and is equipped with the L-82 engine and 4 speed. This 1978 Corvette Pace Car is listed here on eBay with 4 days remaining in the auction. The car is bid to $25,100 after only 3 bids. The seller states that only 202 Pace Cars in this configuration were built. The Corvette sites on the internet appear to back this up. The Corvette is sitting in a garage in Milton Freewater, Oregon.
The base engine in the Corvette in 1978 was the L-48 350 cubic inch V8 engine rated at 185 horsepower. This car has the optional L-82 350 cubic inch V8 engine rated at 220 horsepower and around 280 lb ft of torque. It is backed by a 4 speed transmission. Besides the bump in power, the L-82 350 cubic inch V8 engine came with an improved air induction system, black valve covers, a high lift cam and aluminum intake manifold. The engine compartment appears as it should for such a low mile car. The L-82 350 cubic inch V8 engine option also came with a special tachometer designating the L-82 engine.
Many enthusiasts bought these cars and stored them away for appreciation. At 99 miles, I guess that is what the original owner had in mind. All Pace Cars in 1978 came with black upper paint and silver lower paint. The interior was a silver leather that looked like it was out of a space ship. I owned a 1978 L-82 Pace Car with a 4 speed that I bought in the mid 1990s. It was fun but not practical once our first daughter was born. I have always thought the looks of the 1978 Pace Cars were stunning.
All Pace Car Corvettes had a silver leather interiors and boasted the improved seating. The Pace Cars also had chrome slotted aluminum wheels from the factory with red pinstripes. This car looks like it has the original tires. What will this car sell for?
I don’t follow these cars so I can’t comment on prices, but I do agree with Bruce that these were quite good-looking. Whenever one comes up, two thoughts come to mind: 1) the oft-quoted piece of info that lots of them were ‘put away’ when new, and 2) when in 1978 I stopped at Bob McDorman Chevrolet (near Columbus OH) to check out the couple dozen in stock. Clearly Mr. McDorman was a preferred dealer, and also a Corvette collector.
I bought a Vette from Mr. McDorman. I lived in Montana at the time so I flew out and went through his car collection and drove my new Vette home. Went by the Indy 500 on the way home toured the museum.
An engineer at our GM hardware plant had one of these. Very sharp in that color scheme and brand-spanking new. We were standing near this fellow’s new car speaking on various topics when it struck me how the tires seemed huge; there were I suppose, in proportion to the sleek body.
Is it to the seller’s advantage to just leave the engine bay as is?
The dirty carpets and “patina” under the hood make 99 claimed miles very hard to believe. It wasn’t hard to disconnect the speedometer on GM cars of this vintage if you knew the trick.
I was selling Chevy’s in ‘78 and remember people buying these for well over sticker thinking they’d make a fortune one day. Unfortunately that hasn’t been the case even for pristine examples.
For a collector who really wants one, attend one of the auctions and you can probably find one with similar miles still in the wrapper and much nicer for about what this one will sell for.
The paint has a lot of scuff marks and paint chips to remotely close to <100 miles, I would take this claim with a very big grain of salt!
Ditto on the mileage. Took all of 15 seconds to unscrew the speedo cable from the cruise control and drive off the tach.
I did that to my vette on day one.
Hi MarkyMark – This car belongs to my 82-year-old father-iin-law (FIL). He bought it new in 1978 from Sallee Chevrolet in Milton-Freewater, Oregon. The dealership put the most of the miles on the car before delivering it to my FIL and he wasn’t pleased as he intended to store it as an investment (which he did). He took my future mother-in-law on one ride when he was courting her and then parked it in his garage at 99 miles (which can be confirmed by many). We encouraged my FIL to let us push it out of his garage to wash and wax it and to take photographs for the ad (in the sunlight), but he didn’t want to risk causing it any damage.
Beautiful Vette. Best powertrain. These had some low gears ⚙️ too. 3.70s 🏁
I’m trying to understand this comment.. “best powertrain”?? In what context could a 220hp 350 be considered the best? May be the better engine option available in ‘78, but that’s like comparing brands of toilet paper. One may be better than the other, but it’s still toilet paper..
I’m pretty sure the 78 Pace Car has more sub-2000 mile examples than any other car. They were all bought as collector cars and litter every B rate auto museum with 100 miles on the odometer.
These are going to be big collector cars one day. Grab one while you can and put one away as an investment.
Very Big L O L. I detect a good sense of humor!!
Also, pick up one of those Caddy Eldorado convertibles. You know, they ain’t gonna make convertibles anymore.
“We’re only making 500” …. ( they make 6500 )
40-plus year old car. 99 miles. All adds up to a museum piece needing extensive, expensive work under the hood to make it roadworthy. That cost, plus the price? Cheaper to admire pics of the same car in some online magazine.
So according to the internet, a 1978 pace car went for $13,653 when new. Adjusted for inflation, that is around $67k in 2023 dollars- seems unlikely they will break even. If that same money were invested in the S&P 500 back in 1978, it would be worth over $2 million today. Hopefully the original buyer enjoyed some intangible benefits from storing this car for almost half a century!
99 miles before the speedo was disconnected, very quick simple task on this car.
The front seat has cracks in the leather.. 99 miles? I think not. But it is probably a low mileage car. Buyer beware.
99…miles LOL He must think we are blind . Really hard to believe the info. on this one. Walk away…. Walk away…..
Walk away? Run the odometer and trip odometer don’t match. Why would someone reset the trop odometer now reading 8/10ths? I smell bs 99 miles away.
As usual, the peanut gallery section doesn’t disappoint!
Unfortunately the 78Corvette Pace car was made during the post non performance years 74 – 82. They were for looks only. Maybe the 78 anniversary Vette might be worth real money some day but you can get a nice low mileage 74-82 Corvette for under 15k all day every day .
L-82, 4-speed, with the 3.70 rear end was as good as it got in 1978. I had a 1979 with that set-up and the FE-7 suspension and all of the smog stuff and catalytic converter in a cardboard box. It seemed pretty quick to me. Did you ever drive one?
Indeed… I always LoL when I see people pay more than 5 to 10 thousand for a C3. Dime a dozen cars. Especially the non muscle years
John, go back to sleep. Maybe you’ll wake up in 1992.
I could write a book on these cars and in all honesty you would have to look really hard for more than 2 positive factors.
This is all I have.
BTW, just to remove any and all doubts as to what those 2 positive points are that I mentioned in my first comment…
1, Chevrolet
2, Corvette
The 78, was imo, THE biggest slug Corvette ever built. The other thing it had going for it was the silver anniversary. Which in all honesty isn’t saying much for such a icon of the automobile industry.
A bigger slug than my 77 was? I doubt that …
Neil, ALL the late ‘70s Corvettes were pathetic underpowered slugs. Such a worthless time period in American motoring, and the idea that some days these pace cars would some day be big money collectibles has always been ridiculous. Look at what we were making just 8-10 years before these and it boggles the mind how anyone thinks these could ever possibly compare.
The fact that so many people bought these as “investments” is hilarious and has always made me shake my head. I bet a lot of people regret that decision now. A car with few redeeming features, an awful driving experience, styling is marginal at best, and they haven’t appreciated. Factor in the costs and responsibility of proper storage for four and a half decades and it adds up to a big loss, both financially and in lack of enjoyment. I do not get it at all.
Mr. Enthusiastic.!
You have said it considerably better than I.
CANNOT agree More!
I can ad this. If you you dig out your ol’ trusty Funk and Wagnel and look up “Turd” it has a picture of a 1978 Chevrolet corvette Anniversary edition Indy pace car.
Honest injun.
I worked for Bob McDorman up until 1978,,he was certainly a Corvette nut..I personally sold over 50 of these Pace Cars..Aways thought the Silver Anniversary cars where just as appealing..
The breadth of Barn Finds readers always amazes me. I throw out the name Bob McDorman and we have two readers who have first-hand experience with him and his dealership. Aaron, any particular stories about those sales you remember?
Are those tires original equipment? If so, did they date code them back then? They certainly look like they have very low miles on them.
This car is 45 years old and was not stored in a hermitically sealed environment, of course it is going to show some age.
Before we throw out the 99 mile idea as not valid, an in-person inspection would be necessary and a face-to-face with the owner.
I’ve seen cars with 5k miles that look like new, this one has too many signs of being driven around the block a few times, many times.
Do you want one of these with a pedigree. Look for one with a “Court of Flags” plate on the dashboard. That signifies it was used at, and parked behind the scoring tower at the speedway. Those are rare. Maybe 50 or so. The rest are pretenders
Although it’s probably original, these were cloned a lot back in the day. So much so that when the final C4 Collectors Edition was made, they included a special character in the vin that only those cars have. Not saying this is a clone, but other than the factory paperwork there’s no way of knowing if it’s original or not. Remember the auction in Nebraska at the closed Chevy dealer? They had one with less miles than this that was never sold or titled, it was stored in a building but had all kinds of scratches and nicks. Leather dries out if not cared for, as does rubber. If this car wasn’t started and driven a little every once in awhile, those parts will be dry and cracked, a sign the odometer may be correct.
ANY special edition Corvette is worth more than a standard one, even if only the paint and interior are different than the standard model. They are fun cars to drive, even if they weren’t as fast as some of the older ones. My 82 Collectors Edition has plenty of power, and no, I didn’t give a big price for it even though it only has 60,000 original miles on it. I bought it to drive, being the Collectors Edition only means some of the replacement parts are higher because of less demand for them.
Hi, The 1st thing I thought when I saw the engine bay was if this 99miles mu st’ve drove it in Arizona desert for an hour!!! I’d kill for that garage though!!!! that garage is climate controlled…my 08′ civic cpe w/61K looks better than that!!
I believe this vehicle has been driven a lot of miles? The driver side seat shows excessive wear, plus cracks. This happens only with useage. The passenger side seat shows little to no wear and no cracks? Only one thing that can cause this, and it is a lot of driving!
The engine compartment is also pathetic looking.
Another noteworthy comment, I’m from the VIP section, not the peanut gallery!
Where are you seeing all this alleged wear and cracking on the driver’s seat? The passenger side seat looks about the same. There’s another picture in there that shows it better and it looks very similar. These seats also look very similar condition to several other ultra low mileage pace cars that have sold elsewhere. There’s a few on BAT, among other places, where you see in all their pictures that these seats all have a similar look to them.
This car looks to me like an improperly stored car, NOT one that has been driven much. Improper storage – especially in more humid conditions – rapidly deteriorates things underhood and underneath, but doesn’t always affect the interior if it’s been closed up for decades.
I know of a ‘93 Camaro pace car with under 100 miles on it that was driven home from the dealership and parked in a metal shipping container in the desert. I saw this car ~3 years ago and it looked absolutely like hell. Windows have been down for decades, the cloth interior is FILTHY.. tires flat and cracked on the sidewalls, battery never disconnected and corroded to hell, no fluids emptied, boxes stacked up on it.. even with a high level professional detail it will surely not present well at all for a two digit mileage car. It happens when people do not store them properly.
I agree with you, REAL. I mentioned earlier that this car was not stored in the best way, therefore leading to it being in less than perfect looking condition.
I also looked at seats again and the only way that the driver seat looks worn is because of the photo itself – not a very good one.
This car really needs an in person inspection by any potential buyer, which I’m sure that they would do if really interested in it.