We’re so accustomed to seeing pace cars all gussied up and in someone’s personal collection that it’s a bit disorienting to see one looking as rough and as disheveled as this example. This 1978 Chevrolet Corvette is perhaps one of the best-recognized pace cars ever built and one of the foremost examples of over-collecting in terms of the volume of original owners who kept their cars preserved for some big day down the road. Not so with this one: the paint’s gone, there’s rust, and it certainly doesn’t run. Find it here on eBay with a Buy-It-Now of $3,500.
The seller thankfully doesn’t sugarcoat anything and explains that you will need a new frame, full-stop. The Corvette is apparently very rusty underneath, and while I’m sure there are plenty of people who want to put a Pace Car in their garage but can’t come up with the $20,000 required for a decent one, this is still an awful lot of work for a car that, if you’re patient, a driver-quality example with some needs will pop up eventually for $10,000 or possibly less. That said, I still think the seller’s price is reasonable, but it will take a specific kind of buyer who can ignore logic to some extent in the interest of saving a special car.
I’m certainly one of those people and have two limited-production vehicles of my own that were acquired solely for the purpose of keeping them out of the jaws of the crusher. The seller’s claims his car is rare not only for being a pace car but for having a cloth interior. The interior actually doesn’t look too bad, and even though it will need some level of restoration, it’s faring better than the rest of the car. The dash is cracked, everything is filthy, and the missing rear canopy glass makes me wonder if Mother Nature has been trashing the rear luggage compartment with reckless abandon – perhaps that’s where the frame issues stem from?
The engine bay is dirty but looks reasonably complete; the seller notes the engine is stuck, so add that to the list of things you’ll need to contend with at some point. Of course, you can rebuild this engine if it’s numbers-matching, and find a suitable replacement to install for the time being if you just want to make it a runner again, but if you’re swapping frames you may as well just be patient and do it all at once. After all, it’s just a 350, and while no one would blame you for dropping in a crate motor, provenance counts when it comes to Pace Cars. Should this one be saved?
Only “roller” here is the casters holding up the parts, and you’d have to want them real bad to invest in this thing.
Pretty sure that’s a warehouse dude!
Way back in 1981, a friend I had from the model car hobby named Jim Sonter came to visit me from his home in Sydney, Australia. Well during the three weeks that Jim stayed at my house in Bayonne, New Jersey, my friend and Tri State Scale Model Car Club Co-Founder John Slivoski and I took Jim to visit one of John’s friends who I only remember by his first name of Gene, who lived in Pittsburg, Pa. We took the ride to visit Gene in my new 1980 Malibu, ostensibly to visit with Gene and to go around to people that Gene knew in the model car hobby out there in Pittsburg to buy model cars from collectors. Well Gene knew two brothers who not only sold vintage model car kits and promos, BUT ALSO HAD, five real, 1978 Corvette Pace car coups as well as two 1978 25th anniversary coupes for sale. Sadly I never took any photos of those seven ‘real’ Corvettes, but I did buy an MPC 25th Anniversary Corvette promo. But the thing was, all seven ‘real’ 1978 Corvettes had virtually no miles on them. I’ve always wondered what happen to those Corvettes, but at least I still have the promo I bought that day.
Robert Gill
Fords, New Jersey
I own a Corvette parts business, and I can tell you there’s not enough usable parts left on this car that you could part it out and break even, let alone make money.
I know the seller, he’s a friend, and another Corvette parts vendor. He finds a lot of interesting Corvette project cars, many of them have ended up on Barnfinds. He’s very honest, and will give you an accurate description of a car, but he also tends to ask some crazy prices them.
Cloth seat Pace Cars are a little rare, but I don’t know if it’s a rarity that makes this one more anymore desirable or valuable than one with leather. The L-48/automatic was the most common Pace Car engine/trans combination, and the least desirable too. Unless you have a lot of money, and a lot talent, you better pass on this one.
That rear windshield is practically unobtanium. I tried to source one a couple of years ago, and could only locate one, located in N.Y. @ $800 and no shippng! I imagine it would probably cost in excess of $1k by now!
Not likely to ever become an investment. Not sure it could ever become a realistically priced driver. If someone needs a doner and the needed pieces are not already missing this might be it.
3500 bucks? 35 is more like it, if you agree to haul it away. The hidden steel frames on these rot and are a bear to replace and at great cost too. I don’t know how you in good conscience ask any real money for this. What is left is rotten, nothing even to part out. The 78s were nice cars for the day. Comfortable, great cruisers. personally, I would have stayed away from the hyped ones, the Indy cars, etc. Just built a nice standard model by checking off the right boxes on the order sheet at the dealer. I could never understand how people are so anxious that they can’t wait for the exact perfect car for them.
Never seen a collector edition Vette that was treated like s**t.
Sad. How does an iconic Corvette get to this condition?
This poor pace car can only lead the way to the bone yard …