The 1978 model year was the 25th anniversary of the Chevy Corvette. Not only did they build replicas of the ones that paced the field that year at the Indianapolis 500, but also a special edition as the 25th year celebration. The seller’s Corvette appears to be one of the latter and we’re told it hasn’t run in years, perhaps as far back as 1996. So, it sits with just 51,000 miles waiting to be brought back to life. Located in a garage in Newark Delaware, this project or parts car is available here on eBay where $3,150 is the sweet spot so far in bidding.
Corvette sales were good in 1978 with its second-best year ever (1977 was the record to-date. To celebrate the anniversary of the Corvette’s birth in 1953, Chevrolet elected to build some black and silver special editions that looked a lot like the Indy pace cars, but without the graphics. They accounted for about a third of production that year at nearly 15,300 copies. You had your choice of two 350 cubic inch V8s in any Corvette, producing either 185 or 220 hp. The M-20 4-speed manual was still around, or you could get an automatic with no upcharge (which is how this ‘Vette came).
The cars were a bit more focused on comfort than speed, so little things were offered like a retracting cover for behind the seats and an actual glove box. Fewer than 1,000 buyers went for the removable glass panels on the roof, and this car seems to have them, but one is badly cracked. Not much in the way of history is imparted about this Corvette. We do know that it hasn’t run in ages and the odometer reading of 51,000 miles is said to be correct.
This two-owner car seems to have been parked some time ago, perhaps because the owner thought it would be collectible one day. Then forgot to keep it going so it eventually became inoperative without work. Whatever effort is needed to not specified. The seller goes as far as to suggest you might want to part it out, which indicates a lack of optimism about the Corvette’s future. Given that so many of these sports cars were built, will that put a cap on what it’s worth once revived?
This is a Pace Car without the graphics. Do you guys even know what you’re writing about or are you just doing a 2 minute Google search before typing???
Friend of mine bought one of the first ones and were only supposed to be one per dealer, took a while to get, he put a few miles on it and thought it would be worth alot 1 per dealer. He gave 50,000 for it from the dealer telling him all that. Year later there gonna keep building them and that makes people like him screwed! He parks it. People in town bought 78s in silver and painted the black on. Bought wheels and all that. Ect, originals had that shiny silver interior. Year later my friend is so pi$$ed he parks it in a corn field and let it rot. All kinds of people asked about it, and was talked about in town. If you asked him why, you got the mad as hell story and it will rot to the ground. Its was there 10 years later as he farmed around it. Mice had chewed up alot of it. Sun beat up interior. I had left town by then so dont know what happened to it. It had around a 100 miles on it when he put it in his field. Thanks GM for screwing up things for ones who paid big bucks for those. Stick to your plans. Your gonna make 500 then only make 500.
It wasn’t GM’s fault that people got greedy. It was very early in the program that it was announced they were going to make one for each of their 6700+ dealers. Same thing happened with folks who paid $100,000 in 1990 to be the first on their block to put a ZR-1 away.
They did say “the latter” which implies the Pace version. All 78’s were badged as the Anniversary Edition, including the pace car, which had the additional “Limited Edition” decals.
112th 78 L48 Corvette Pace Car.
And an absolute beater. Hard pass.
It started out as limited edition of 200 then it went to over 6000, I had one with 1600 miles on it,tried selling it but it seemed like they were everywhere,I had a hard time selling it for 2500 so I traded it for a 69 Camaro all tore apart,it’s been six years now and still waiting to get it finished!
Just being an L48 with an automatic doesn’t help ultimate value either. Having AC doesn’t hurt its value as a cruiser though. Just a matter of making it work again.
Though to be honest, these aren’t really worth a damn as performance cars anymore. They are huge fun as cruisers though. So a torquey L48 with automatic and AC may be just the ticket.
Chevrolet built 6,502 Black and Silver Pace Cars in 1978. Every Chevrolet Dealer received one car. There were 6,502 Chevrolet Dealers in 1978. Every Pace had glass t-tops, polished aluminum wheels and an upgraded bucket seat. Every Pace Car came with the Indy 500 Decals to be dealer installed. The Pace Car Edition was a $4,000 option over the base model. Most 1978 Pace Cars were sold over MSRP by the dealers. Chevrolet built 15,283 Two Tone Silver Anniversary Editions to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Corvette. This was the first year you could buy a Two Tone Painted Corvette. All Pace Car Editions were Black and Silver Exterior with all having a Special Silver Interior. All 25th Silver Anniversary Editions were Two Tone Silver Exterior with your choice of interior colors in the Standard Bucket Seat.
Absolutely correct!
Boy, tough crowd!
Nah, just an “interested” crowd.
My Auto Mechanic Shop Owner has the 1990 ZR1 in Black He Bought New. It’s sits on the Lift in His Shop. To Date it has 900 miles on it. It Runs Perfectly, Keeps it Registered & Insured But will Not let the Milage go over 1000 miles. I would Not have the Willpower to Not Drive it. His Plan is to Send it to Barrett Jackson Wen it’s 40 years old. I’ll Kno in 6 years if his investment & willpower Not to Drive it Pays off
L-48, automatic. All the buyer will get is the Pace car paint and interior. I appreciate the seller’s honesty.
They made 6502 pace cars, all had the removable silver glass tops. This is one of the early ones being number 112.
At least it’s a no reserve auction. The seller seems to realize he’s not sitting on a super rare, high dollar collectible. The eventual buyer will get a nice project or a really affordable parts car.
I’ve always likes the lines of this era of ‘Vette.
Personal story, so pass if you don’t want to hear it. 1984, the woman who quickly became my ex-wife after she cheated on me with a local yokel because he had one of these Corvettes.
I’m figuring based on her history with me that eventually she cheated on him with someone else (flavor of the day).
Probably the best thing that happened to me in that decade, but I still can’t look at, or consider buying, this year Corvette.
Ah yes, the most over-collected car of all time! There are so many under-1K examples out there that this won’t likely go much higher. It’s an unusual vehicle for which we can say, in 2024, that 50K miles is high; but this is that vehicle. A quick eBay search shows 13 currently for sale, ranging from 7 to 79K miles. Normally, I’d say it’s good to find one broken in, but the subjec t car just looks neglected. Still, I like these and hope someone picks this up cheaply and makes it an occasional driver.
A friend of mine had a base ’79 Corvette automatic in the family in the late 80s when we were young drivers and we got to take it out periodically. As was stated before, the numbers on these don’t hold up to mainstream family cars today, but these are torquey things and provide plenty of fun. While not scientific, I can say that car vs. a then-new 1991 Mustang GT 5-speed was pretty much a dead heat in a drag race.
Most over collected comment is spot on. Everyone thought these were better than money in the bank. Nope. And best be extra skeptical of the really low mileage examples. Took all of 15 seconds to disconnect the speedo cable at the cruise servo and drive off the tach.
Had a 79, L82, stick. Fun to drive, pretty quick but not like the 67 GTA Fairlane I bought when I got back from the war.
Thank you for your service! That was a tough time to be in the military
Yes, might be better to part it out. I’m wondering about the condition of the interior, A quick search for ” 1978 corvette seat covers” … and Yikes, $ 680.00 pls. tx
and that’s just for 1
Door decals run $299.00
Too bad it was neglected for so long not fast fun or exciting but still a piece of history should of been a nice cruiser.
Worked at a Chev dealer in ’79 and had one of these. It had a L82 stick. We would get all kinds of over list offers over the phone and deposits too.
Ended up being bought by a local guy at list.
Chev dealer a couple towns over, same thing.