Many car collectors have a niche interest that they pursue. Professional cars, like funeral coaches or police cruisers, are one. Having anything and everything Hemi is another. Somewhere in this pantheon come pace cars, and more particularly, those that paced the Indy 500. Well, not the actual cars, but what are probably properly named “pace car replicas,” cars kitted up to look like the one holding thirty-three drivers back until the start of the race and the announcer’s call, “Green! Green! Green!” If you’re someone pursuing this angle of automotive adoration, here’s your chance to grab up a 1979 Mustang Indy 500 Pace Car replica seen here on craiglist. It’s brought to us thanks to Barn Find eagle-eyed Jack M, and if you want it, you’ll need to get to Westchester County, New York, with something around fifteen grand in your pocket. That is, unless you want to pay asking price, which is $16,000.
If you’re a racing fan, you probably would respond, “Corvette,” if asked to name the marque that has paced Indy’s Memorial Day weekend extravaganza the most times, and you’d be right. That number is 23. By contrast, the Mustang has had the honor but three times, all in significant years in Mustang history. The first was 1964, and as we all know, the car came out just a month before the May long weekend, on April 17, 1964. 1979 marked the second time. Significantly, the Mustang had undergone a complete rethink, redesign, and reengineering with the introduction of its “Fox body” variant, a 1979 offering. Next came the 1994 Mustang and pace car, again, a recentering of the essential qualities of the original Pony Car. In 2026, just for context, it was a Corvette ZR1 with 1250 horsepower driving all four wheels. Imagine Jackie Stewart, who drove the 1979 Pace Car, getting his greedy mitts on that bad boy! Perhaps the fact that he recently turned 87 suggests that’s not my best idea.
The 1979 Pace Car came in only one color combo: Pewter Metallic with black lower side cladding and orange, red, and black graphics. When new, the model came with a set of decals in the trunk. Either the dealer or the owner could put those on, and admirers would read, “Official Pace Car: 63rd Annual Indianapolis 500 Mile Race May 27, 1979.” In total, Ford produced a not-insignificant number of these cars, 10,487 to be precise. They had either a 2.3-liter turbo 4-cylinder engine or a 5.0-liter V8. I know which one I’d want. More cylinders, please. But the car in question here has the four-cylinder. Additional features of the model included a hood with a non-functional scoop, Marchal fog lights in a unique front air dam, and a rear spoiler. Two additional features were a TRX suspension and Recaro racing seats in the front.
So if you want one of these, you’re onto something. You’d be capturing a moment in Mustang history significant for both the Fox-body aspect and the Indy history. But look hard at this car and keep your wallet on its chain for a moment. Under the hood, there’s a very strange kind of surface rust, for example, on the shock towers. Has this car been in a damp environment for a long time? Sure, it’s got only 30,000 miles on it, but where’s it been? And when the ad says, “some patina,” what is the scale? And just out of curiosity, when the seller says it was “rescued from an estate collection,” does that reassure you? I’m more interested in the admission that there is surface rust underneath, though no images illustrate the extent of that. This Mustang is unrestored, and that’s how I like to buy them, but you’re going to have to do some spit-shining to raise it up a level. In the meantime, is this car going up, or has it flatlined as far as demand, and therefore price, is concerned?
Does it come with an air cleaner?