May is here, which means one thing; It’s Indy time! This year, Chevrolet’s Corvette Z06 will serve as the Official Pace Car, but in 1979, that honor fell to Ford’s new Fox-Body Mustang. The company did what most manufacturers did by leveraging the enormous exposure to produce a production run of Pace Car Replicas. Our feature car is one of them, and it presents well for an unmolested survivor. It needs a new home, with the seller listing it here on eBay in Fishkill, New York. This classic has received a single bid of $11,500 in a No Reserve auction.
Like many vehicles of its type, Ford offered buyers the 1979 Pace Car in a single color scheme. It is distinctive Pewter Metallic over Black. The package also included some distinctive graphics announcing loudly and proudly what this classic is. The seller says this gem isn’t perfect, with its panels and paint carrying a few minor blemishes. However, the presentation is acceptable, with shining paint and crisp vinyl stickers. Rust is not an issue, courtesy of the original owner rustproofing and undercoating this classic when new. The glass is in good order, including the factory sunroof. The car rolls on later wheels, but the seller includes the original TRX wheels and tires for those craving originality on the show scene. The tires aren’t roadworthy and have flat spots from sitting, but they hold air okay.
The seller supplies no interior shots and little information in their listing. All Mustang Pace Cars featured unique cloth upholstery on the beautiful Recaro seats that could be prone to wear. The rest of the interior is typical Fox-Body fare, meaning plastic can crumble if exposed to harsh UV rays. However, the Mustang is no worse than any other vehicle from this period, and most survived surprisingly well. The listing suggests there are no aftermarket additions, with the car featuring air conditioning and a radio/cassette player.
Powering this Mustang is the turbocharged 2.3-liter four that sends 117hp to the road via a four-speed manual transmission. This wasn’t the most potent package on the planet, taking 17.4 seconds to cover the ¼-mile. The seller recently replaced the front pads, rear shoes, and wheel cylinders. The tires have under 900 miles on them, with the seller indicating the odometer reading of 22,997 miles is original. They don’t mention verifying evidence, but it may exist since they have been the vehicle’s custodian since 1981. The Mustang runs and drives perfectly, suggesting the winning bidder could fly in and drive it home.
The Ford Mustang has served as the Indy 500 Pace Car three times, with the last occasion occurring in 1994. Ford contributed to the motoring world in 1979 by producing 10,478 Pace Car Replicas. Although buyers preferred the version with a V8 under the hood, 5,970 chose the turbocharged four. This one presents well as a survivor and appears to need nothing. If it were the V8 version, I would expect bidding to hover close to $20,000. However, the four is not as popular, and bidding could stall at under $15,000. If there is no further action before the end draws near, dropping a bid could be wise. With values climbing, you might be lucky to score a classic that is an appreciating asset. That doesn’t happen every day.
Adam has well-described these Pace Cars. I think they were an attractive package. As with other Pace Car editions over the years, many were kept; it’s not hard to find one of these with low mileage. But as Adam points out, they don’t command big prices, especially in four-cylinder form. I didn’t see any interior pics, the Recaros were prone to severe deterioration even with minimal use. Nice car.
Steong comment as usual Bob 🙌
Lotta memories here, I bought a slightly used repo in 1980, except mine had a 302, auto. Not sure you can even buy tires for those 390mm TRX wheels anymore, I replaced mine with a set Cragars, and white letter Goodyears, looked pretty nice.
This one’s been well kept, It’ll sell fast. Fox body Mustangs are still cheap way into the classic car scene, and there’s an array of performance parts available, especially with the V8, these are pretty common at the local dragstrips
This looks like a very nice example. The seats are a mystery as it looks like from what I can see by magnifying and viewing through the windows that it has sheepskin seat covers. So if those have been in place for it’s life the recaros could be in as new condition… or they could be in place to cover well-worn recaros. Again really nice example but I wish it was the 302.
The problem with sheep skin seat covers are the stains from the natural lanolin oil in them, it eventually soaks into the original covers and they look terrible, I had this problem with a 1973 Holden Caprice, the factory brocade seats were ruined by the oil, vinyl might fare better being non absorbent.
I had a ’79 Mustang with the 2.3L Turbo-4 cylinder. That early carbureted engine is a really terrible set up drawing air through the carb before passing through the turbo compressor, and no turbo bearing oiling after shutdown so the turbo does not hold up over time. I’d drop in one of the later fuel injected 2.3L engines if I had this car. I had that engine in three cars, an ’83 XR7, ’85 T-Bird Turbo Coupe and ’89 XR4Ti. Those were great!
Seller provides a link in the ad to pics taken in 2017 (https://youtu.be/MO3wNRo5zkM) that includes interior pics. Granted a lot can happen in 6 years, but from the looks of it this is a well cared for Fox body.
Thankfully, no t-tops.
Someone’s going to get a nice car.
Well it’s way out of the league price Wise unless it’s actually a pace car that was used and it’s still way overpriced for what It is because of heck anyone can paint and put stickers on that yr..I know I’m 50+yrs Ford mechanic