Corvette Pace Car L82 Auto

Thanks for viewing. Opening bid will win this car! You been looking so you know most 1978 Pace Car specifics. This car is extremely nice. collector owned and stored in climate control on carpet. Please read the detailed biography. I am reluctantly selling to go long term RV traveling with my grand daughter. 1978 Corvette Pace Car known as 1Z8748S900629. Please note that names have been abbreviated for privacy reasons. Interesting… as this Pace Car (PC) does have some history. No it was not a track car or a festival car. nor did any 500 Princess ride in it. However. this PC did get caught up in the original hoopla over availability and sky rocketing prices. When Chevrolet announced that only a handful of PC's would be produced and the public and dealers had their outcry which when heard dictated that now 6502 cars would be made. one for each dealer the market went crazy. Wall Street predicted that these could be the investment opportunity of the year. And the public responded. So. starts the story of this car. But before let me say this is one nice Pace Car. Full option minus Gymkhana suspension and CB radio. Did I say it’s nice? It is a L82 with auto transmission. Numbers match. never altered or abused. Quite the contrary as you will find in the following detailed description. I realize that there is a lot of verbiage. please be patient or contact me for a one on one account of the condition. This PC was scheduled to be delivered to Tony Price Chevrolet just outside Salt Lake City area. Already spoken for by a local dentist Dr. Wesley F. delivery was taken on April 8th 1978. And back to the economy. the stock market and speculators. Dr. F. was one of 'em. So Dr. F. bought the car for sticker price. $14. 26. 21 and 10 days later on April 18th sold it for $24. 26. 21. Yep. exactly $10. 00 over sticker. Now. just for your information (fortunately for all of us owners to follow) letters. notes. receipts and various pieces of documentation were kept to track this interesting history. So. Dr. F. sells the car. as one documenting letter describes as "to make a buck" to Mr. Robert L. S. CPA of Santa Ana. CA. Now with just assumption here it would make sense that this deal had already been developed before Dr. F. took delivery however again with all the wild crazy investors it could have been spur of the moment. just dunno for sure. Dr. F. signs over an affidavit to transfer new car warranty. And Robert loved and cherished the car for years to come. The PC stayed in California for years with license registrations and insurance coverage paperwork to verify. All along driven but. very sparingly. It is worth mentioning though that the original Utah BMV temporary paper tag was altered with a black magic marker to show "expires" May 7 1979. yes 1979 when actually it expired 30 days after issued which was May 7 1978. So. what was that all about? Did Robert drive on the temp tag for a year? did he not drive the first year and just not plate it? Unsure but. in the registrations was found where Robert did tag the car legally 7-3-1978 for a cost of about $950. That’s motivation for altering the temp tag. another unexplained mystery. Maybe you can decipher. And then April 1989 Robert sells the car to Mr. Micheal S. in Laguna Hills. CA. Pace Cars still very collectable and sought after. After all only once since 1978 has Corvette been invited to be the Indy 500 pacer. And we all know that story. 1986 Corvette introduces a convertible and even though yellow the chosen color for the actual PC and track cars and replicas all 1986 Corvette convertibles were designated Pace Cars. All colors not like the unique black and silver with special trim 1978's. So. 1978 is still the go to Corvette for Pace Cars. And Michael loved the car and also drove sparingly. Now in the 25. 00 mile range it still maintained almost 100% originality. And then Michael is relocating to Michigan and it's sometime with 1991 to/through 1992 that the car set garaged for some time during his transition. No registration is found for 1991 but now 1992 the car is plated. insured and back on the road again. Michael continues to drive and enjoy in Farmington Hills. MI. Laguna "Hills" to Farmington "Hills". huh? Showing some signs of normal use and knowing that the Corvettes of that day only had certain amounts of quality in the paintwork. Michael decides to repaint (only much. much better) the car. It's is not known the exact mileage or date of the repaint but it is assumed that it was just prior to June 6th 1993 and mileage was just over 37k. This can be assumed date wise as the car was entered in a car show named "Corvette Hat Trick" sponsored by Corvette Club of Michigan. And again FYI this Pace Car was the winner of its class over multiple cars. Scoring 98 points out of 100 for exterior/paint. Scoring sheets reflected 160 points possible and (3) judges scored 148--152--156. Not bad. 160 possible and top score only 4 points off that! Point of note for all you just dying to know. the decals had never been installed. so still today rolled up in their original delivery box. What was heard later from the next owner was that approximately $7500 (1993 dollars) was spent on this prep and paint. Unheard of to spent $7000 when an average job would have been maybe $1000 or little more. How much would that be today? Oh. by the way the paint was flawless. oh by the way the paint is still virtually flawless (my biased opinion). And one reason. the car today has only 38560 actual miles. Little more than 500 to 1000 miles has been added to the odometer since the repaint. Did I say the paint is flawless? (well pretty darn nice). And worth mentioning is that Michael had had a local audio store install a new Sony am-fm-cassette player (cost $476) and very nice install job I might say as I have inspected installation behind the dash and it still works great even today. Yes. the original am-am 8 track is still with the car all boxed up. Also. you know the old brakes by now need some attention so Michael has them addressed along with all (4) new calipers at a cost of $478 that appear to be SS as even today show no signs of rust or even discoloration. Nice! (FYI: Michael’s California license plates cost him $645 in 1989 . wow!!) And Michael continued to enjoy the car and all the accolades and compliments. Enter Steve and Mary Ann B. More Corvette enthusiasts. Them. the owner other Corvettes including 1970 C2 big block that they had owned since 1975 decided that they needed to add this PC to their collection. Michael had advertised the car in the local Detroit paper on 4-28-1994 reflecting 37500 miles and an asking price of $13. 99. (Once again talking to the mileage and paint work timing. ) 2 days later 4-30-1994 Steve and Mary Ann sealed the deal with Michael. Did ya notice the pattern here? This car has sold each time including new from the dealer in the month of April. Steve and Mary were thrilled (documented again by letters sent to former owner Michael S. ). Steve a GM man (literarily) cherished the car and was thrilled to show it off. The PC made a (trailer) trip to 1997 Bloomington (IL) 25 year anniversary show and again to the 1998 20th Pace Car reunion show. Yep. letters. badges and doc's to substantiate. Before that Steve had shown off the car at the 1995 Indy 500 NCRS meet. Proud owners indeed. Fast forward to 2008. and me (Mark N). Steve is ready to retire from GM. He and Mary are going to relocate to Las Vegas and are downsizing in a big way. Sorry for them that the Pace car has to go. lucky for me. Being the collectors with the bug as most of us they are not giving up completely. their love of the 1970 vette is such that they cannot part and it will make the move with them to a new home for evening drives towards the neon light spectacular. Again lucky me. Having had about two hundred seventy five (275) corvettes over my tenure including about 10 1978 Pace cars. I knew I needed this one. Currently I owned a 1984 very low mileage red/red driver and a 1993 Ruby Red 40th anniversary---sweet car. My passion had always been 1978's and especially Tu-Tone Anniversary cars and even more so the sought after Pace Car. I had just finished restoring a 1 owner '78 S. A. L82 4 speed car and sold it to Atlanta Ga and no sooner that done yearned for another 78 for the garage. This was the one. I found it on EBay. Contacted Steve and readied with a question sheet we talked. I asked him questions that even he did not know the answer to. "Did the cruise work?" I asked. he didn't know. And then I found out why he didn't know. they didn't drive far enough to use it. They were collectors like me and this is the type of owner/seller I was looking for. He did afterwards take out the car for his routine maintenance drive activating the cruise control. We talked a couple of times over the next two days. We made a deal over the phone … sight unseen. But being a single guy I had no way of getting the car so kind Steve threw in delivery. again lucky me. He said if it wasn't what he described he would not even unload from the trailer. return home no questions asked. I had confidence. I said meet me in front of my bank. We met and after less than 5 minutes. two walk arounds. undercarriage visual inspection I said "Steve. can you get my car off your trailer?" "I've got stuff to do today. " We both grinned. And so today I have the car. So as I said as a collector I have had about 10 1978 Pace Cars and about 20 1978 true Silver Anniversary cars (two-tone silver). Living close to the Indianapolis Speedway it was easy to cruise during the month of May and see and enjoy all the hoopla. 1978 being one of the best times to enjoy the 500 especially the turn 1 “snake pit”. I fell in love with that car from first sight knowing that eventually I would have one. little did I know. Currently the car has 38560. 5 miles; I bought the car with 38557. 0 miles. Math says 3. 5 miles since purchase November 6th 2008. And as most folks ask. why? My answer “Well do you collect anything? Enjoy any hobby?” Well. the Corvette Pace Car to me is a work of art. I enjoy displaying it in my climate controlled garage surrounded by corvette memorabilia. artwork. prints. automobilia. checkered flags and all things related to the 500 track. This is my art. I have driven hundreds of vettes so that thrill is over and now I have the appreciation for the artwork. engineering. manufacturing dedication that went into the development of this car (and all models for that matter). And just for your information before I forget to mention. With the car are the original window sticker and the dealer copy. Temporary paper plate. warranty booklet. smog certs. headlight dimmer “notice”. Delco battery “no maint” flier. front air deflector install procedure sheet. glass t-top package sheet. alum wheel maint. instruction sheet. Goodyear limit warrant booklet. Goodyear tire warranty adjustment policy. 1978 consumer inform. sheet. jack usage instruction decal. multi-function switch/key removal sheet. “Notice” laminated glass roof warning sheet. 1978 Chevrolet passenger car maint schedule. completed warranty information card (with original owner Dr. F. information) and more. Receipts with names and dates. Yada yada. I’m tired of typing. Oh yeah. registrations from 1978 thru 2003. if I hadn’t already mentioned it. And lastly. a bunch of letters and doc’s between owners. Then finally. some of what I have done since owning the car. besides driving it three miles. And that was usually down to the local filling station to gas it with hi-test fuel. But also. new air cleaner decal. a-arm rubber protectors. emission decal. valve cover gaskets. air filter. door sill plates. floor mats and correct Delco oil filter. among other little details. Always know that I start and bring to temp the car about every two weeks or so. Always moving the car by a foot or so to avoid flat spots and pushing all the buttons to work all the components. Two things that I have done worth mentioning are: during one of these times (June 2013) that I started the car to bring to temp I turned on the radio and antenna went up. but never went down. The ribbon broke. Short story. I bought an aftermarket antenna from Mid America after taking out original and inspecting. However I did not have it in me to change from original so. the mast is in down position. And I have kept the aftermarket antenna for. whoever/whenever. And about 2010 I noticed a front parking light out. not the bulb. I replaced the socket with correct stock and all is good. And kept the old socket. Currently the two things that I know are non working are: 1). antenna (even though radio reception is still excellent). 2). A/C has lost all it’s juice over the years and has not been upgraded/changed to 134. But it’ still all there and nothing is froze or broke. It has never been cracked open. And to continue at the time of writing this the Delco maint. free battery finally gave up. I had had hooked to battery tender for prior 4 years and that kept enough charge for me to start the car up on a regular basis but. it finally died. So. after much to do I located an original style Delco battery with the correct period look. Being like I am it had to be Delco just as I changed that oil filter to a Delco correct style (shorty) as soon as I had purchased the car. And just for fun I have a 1978 Indiana license plate from Indy area (Morgan County). And as I moved from the Indy area to Panama City Beach FL area I gave up the black and white checkered carpet that it sat on while garaged. And yes. with connections at the track. I secured the carpet from one of the hospitality tents after the 2009 May event. But rest assured it still sits on carpet. makes it easier for me when I crawl around to just look at the underside. I can’t tell you how many folks tell me to my face “are you nuts. I’d be out driving that car”. Suffices to say my lady friends are not too happy with me when we have to drive my old truck. And then the latest. Sunday November 24th. 2013. Bright sunny warm day and I thought what the heck. No one has ever ridden in the car with me. duh since I never drive it. So. I ask my 4 ½ year old granddaughters if she would like to travel the beach road and see how many of the young girls we can get to wave. She readily agrees and so we clear a path out of the garage and pull it out to warm up. After warming the engine and grandma taking some well orchestrated pictures off we go. Down the front beach road enjoying the sunny day. Little one sitting up high to see the road best she could. A little less than two miles down the road we found a wide spot to do a u-turn and back we go. I explain to her about L82 and a 4 barrel carb. She doesn’t understand so I show her. The car squats and goes. just like it should and her hands immediately cover her ears. ”too loud. too loud grandpa Mark” she says. And then I explain that’s the way it’s supposed to sound. Cars run flawlessly. We return to the garage and I try all the buttons and everything works that has been working. Remember A/C is not and antenna is not but everything else is as it was. Car was clean only dusty when we left but I thought what a great day for a detailing. 4 hours later back into the garage with a whopping 4. 8 more miles on the clicker. Now at 38565. 3 we both had a great time playing and enjoying. Grandma’s a bit mad cause I didn’t offer up a ride to her. eeeer . hope this doesn’t ruin my evening. And as of this latest update of April 15 2015 the car has currently 38566. 4 actual miles. I drove it around the block just recently. Oooooo what fun! The car is original…. only the things I have mentioned have been changed. It does sit on the second set of tires (GoodYear O. W. L. ) looking period correct and at about 50-60% tread. All else remains as it was delivered. i. e. original: exhaust. spare tire. jack. suspension. interior etc etc. Call Mark at 850-819-7541 for more photos