Vehicle Description
1978 Chevrolet Corvette Pace Car - Only 36 Original Miles! - Family
Owned Since New - L82 V8 - 4 Speed Manual - Gymkhana Suspension -
Original Window Sticker still in the window! (Please note: If you
happen to be viewing this 1978 Chevrolet Corvette Pace Car Edition
on a site other than GarageKeptMotors.com, it's possible that
you've only seen some of our many photographs of this vehicle due
to website limitations. To be sure you access all the more than 100
photographs including a short walk-around-and-startup video, please
go to our main website: GarageKeptMotors.) ...the car that kicked
off the Corvette's long association with the Indy 500. Robb Report,
May 2018 According to the Corvette authority, CorvSport.com, the
Pace Car Edition was not just a matter of paint and pinstripes: The
Corvette Indy Pace Car also featured a special front and rear
spoiler, both of which were designed to add a more dramatic
appearance to the car, though neither offered much in the way of
additional downforce. The front spoiler was similar to the one
installed on the 1978 Pontiac Trans-Am. It wrapped under and around
the front of the car before blending into the wheel wells.
Conversely, the rear spoiler curved down at its outboard ends to
meet the body-sides of the Corvette. When the prospective owner
checked the RPO Z78 option code for the Pace Car Edition, the car
would also arrive with... new glass T-tops, alloy wheels, power
windows, a rear window defogger, air conditioning, sports mirrors,
a tilt/telescopic steering wheel, a heavy-duty battery, an AM/FM
stereo equipped with either an eight-track tape player or a CB
radio, and power door locks. The car's interior was also special:
The interior... was directly influenced by Bill Mitchell and
featured either full silver leather or leather/gray cloth
upholstery and gray carpeting. For the... Pace Car, Chevrolet
introduced a new, thin-shell seat design that featured more lumbar
support. Although these seats were originally slated for the 1979
(Corvette), the development program was accelerated so that (they)
could be introduced in the 1978 Pace Car package. Offered here is
unquestionably an important and highly collectible 1978 Pace Car
Edition Corvette. Short of finding a new one somehow left behind at
the St. Louis factory 42 years ago, this 1978 Indianapolis 500 Pace
Car Edition is one of, if not the, lowest-mileage example in
existence. Owned by the same family since it was delivered new by
Thomet Chevrolet-Buick in Lowell, Michigan, the car's odometer now
shows a total of just 36 miles. Its factory-applied Munroney
sticker was never removed; it's still applied to the side window.
This particular Pace Car Edition has the added distinction of
having been ordered with a driver's orientation in its optional
equipment: It was one of a small number equipped with both the P87
Gymkhana (Autocross) suspension and the M21 Close-Ratio 4-speed
transmission. (The lighter 350 V8 on the car would also have been
the autocrosser's choice.) These options are especially prized by
present-day collectors. As to the car's condition, the word
pristine is an accurate description. The silver leather seats still
wear their factory-applied clear-plastic protection. Exterior black
and silver paint-including the red tape-striping separating the two
exterior colors-is virtually perfect. The red pin-striped alloy
wheels are unblemished. The glass T-tops are perfectly clear with
factory-original tint. Correct special-edition emblems are in place
and undamaged. Effectively, this is a new automobile. Particularly
with a car this special, prospective purchasers will want to view
all the more than 100 high-definition photographs at the
GarageKeptMotors site to see it from every angle, including from
underneath. There's also a sampling of the V8's exhaust note in the
accompanying short walk-around-and-startup video. With all of that,
a car of this caliber and rarity (only 6,200-one for each Chevr