Original, One-Owner 1978 Corvette Pace Car Has 293 Miles; Is It a Failed Flip, or What?

In March 1978, Gerald Chouinard made national headlines because he was upset with Chevrolet—so much so that he took the General Motors division to court for not selling him a car. If you’re unfamiliar with the story, this might seem like a solid case for the unhappy customer. After all, a carmaker is in this business to sell his cars, above all else. And yet, Chevrolet was sued for not fulfilling a buyer’s request.

In its defense, Chevy could have argued that the automobile in question had been in production for nine days when an article about Gerald Chouinard made the first page of the Wall Street Journal on March 27, 1978. The object of the dispute was the Indy 500 Pace Car replica, of which Chevrolet intended to build 300 examples to honor the original production run of the 1953 Corvette.

However, word broke out about the car, and customers began pushing dealers with questions. With 6,500 showrooms nationwide, it was a no-brainer that only a select few would get one of the anniversary pace setters. However, the WSJ article also prophesized that, within three months, the special Corvette would change hands for $75,000 (1978 values).

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Orders began pouring in, and Chevrolet finally agreed to increase production 22-fold to meet demand. Six thousand five hundred two units were assembled, each with a modest price of $13,653.21 (some $4,300 over the value of a base Corvette).

If the reputed publication envisioned a return on investment of 500%, it was probably worth paying for. Or so buyers initially thought when they started ordering the cars in anticipation of the bull market for the ‘Vette. However, that moment never came: the investment bubble burst spectacularly, leaving many ‘investors’ unhappy with their financial decisions and many cars in storage for an undetermined period.

Some have been collecting dust for decades, waiting for the right buyer. That the 1978 Indy 500 pace cars were never the unicorns, which one media outlet incorrectly assessed, is a sad reality. Still, the worst part is that those cars were condemned to oblivion and deprecation without serving the purpose for which they were built.

Take the attached video as the perfect example. The story is straightforward. In 1978, a man buys one of the coveted and over-hyped Corvettes and puts it away, waiting for those $75,000 dreams to come true. Like many others, he had high expectations about the investment but lost.

He kept the car until now, barely putting a mile or two on it. The vehicle has just 293 total miles (471 kilometers), and the last time it was out in the open was in 1988, at the Homecoming Car Show. For the following 36 years, the Corvette just sat in a garage, collecting dust and offering rodent accommodation.

Finally, the time had come for the car to get a refreshment before going up for sale, and the boys from WD Detailing were asked to clean up the mess. The detailers gave the car its first wash since 1988. Granted, the car wasn’t all that bad, to begin with; the thick layer of dust was the most obvious cosmetic derailment. The car, while not new and barely used in the distant past, still had its seat plastic wrappers on.

The number of Corvette sportscars produced for the 1978 model year rose to 46,776 units, putting the pace car replicas at a respectable 14% of the batch. Interestingly, all of them were assembled between March 18th and May 5th at an average rate of 135 daily. This is quite a steep increase against the regular pace of roughly 100 Corvettes daily. Still, the haste was legitimate, as Chevrolet wanted the cars to be ready before the May 28 Indy 500 race.

The example starring in the video is not among the rarest of the ’78 Pace Cars, but it does have some nice features. The L-82 engine is the obvious one, as the hood decals boisterously claim; the 350-cubic-inch V8 (5.7-liter) was the performance option offered by Chevrolet for the sportscar that year.

The sad news is that the engine was just one of two installed in Corvettes, and the real depressing detail is in the output. 220 hp and 260 lb-ft (223 PS, 353 Nm) weren’t exactly Indy 500 material, but it was the best money could buy at the height of the Malaise.

The mainstream companion for this top-tier engine was the automatic transmission (2,384 units came with it), but this is one of the 972 glass T-tops. And while that mileage might seem appealingly low, it should be noted that several instances of one-digit and low two-digit survivors have been reported over the years, pushing this resurrected example into a not-so-glamorous category of the 1978 Limited Edition Pace Car segment.