While I’m sure most of the readers of this site are familiar with the 1979 Ford Mustang Indy 500 pace car replicas, you may not know there was an official truck replica as well. Generally, the manufacturer of the pace car also supplies pickup trucks for general duty around the speedway during the month of May, and 1979 was no exception. However, Ford went one step further and offered replicas of these official trucks to the general public. This one was sent in by reader Keith C., who commented “I don’t think I have ever seen a truck like this.” It’s for sale here on craigslist in Nashville, Tennessee for $3,250 or best offer.

While there were 10,478 Mustang pace car replica made (plus the three actual pace cars), the seller states that there were only 645 official truck replicas produced. However, I found an article on the trucks here that states there were 4,225 produced. Either way, that’s not a lot of vehicles. This one appears to have lived outside for most of it’s life given the amount of surface rust present, although in my experience, Ford metallic colors of this era, especially silver, did not survive very well.

The seller tells us that the bed was repainted at one point, and neither the “GT” roll bar nor original aluminum wheels are present at this point. Luckily, those parts were also used on the “Free Wheelin'” 1977-1979 trucks, so they have at least a chance of being available.

Up close, you can see that the decals have seen better days as well. Interestingly enough, the lettering on the side wasn’t applied until delivery of the vehicle to the customer as many customers didn’t want the lettering. I was able to find a reproduction decal kit, but unfortunately despite the $750 cost, the font is completely wrong on the doors. But we can solve that too, here’s an original lettering set on eBay for $269. I also found a NOS set of the special aluminum wheels here on eBay.

The special edition truck did have a pretty snazzy interior for its day, but this one needs at least a little help. There’s some wear in the driver’s seat but the dash looks pretty good, as well as the unusual door panels.

Wouldn’t this be a neat tow vehicle if you have a show condition 1979 Mustang pace car? This is a 302, although replicas were available with up to a 460 V8. The seller tells us it runs, shifts and drives well. All in all, I think this could be a really neat piece of history–but if one restores it nicely, is it then still usable as a work truck? I’ll let you decide that one in the comments.