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A little history
behind the Mustang Indy Pace Cars
1964 Indy Pace Car
The Indy 500, one of America’s greatest racing
events has been paced mostly by the Chevrolet Corvette. Obviously the
decision makers in Indianapolis need to check themselves for using the
same old redone Vette every year. They have however come to their senses
at least three years of 92 years of its running.
Early in 1964, when the Ford Mustang was about to
burst onto the automobile scene, Indy officials contacted Ford about
making the much anticipated pony their pace car. Ford built the three
convertibles with the sole purpose of pacing the 1964 Indianapolis 500.
These three cars were sent directly from the factory to Holman & Moody
in North Carolina to be specially modified for pace car duties. These
modifications included extensive work to the 289cid engines, the
installation of a Borg-Warner 4-speed transmission, and lowered
suspension with differently valved shocks on each side of the car to
accommodate the banked turns of the Indianapolis Speedway, and
high-speed rated tires. The cars were all painted Wimbledon White.
Ford put on a special competition between
dealerships in order to distribute the planned pace car replicas to be
released for sale to the public. The competition consisted of "Checkered
Flag" and "Green Flag" contests that were based on the sales performance
of the dealerships prior to the April 17, 1964 introduction of the
Mustang. The top five performers in each district would receive a pace
car replica for free, or at a significant discount, based on their final
standings in the sales contest. With 36 districts this added up to 180
replicas, however, because of dealership ties and strong performances,
approximately 10 extra replicas were made, bringing the total to an
estimated 190. Representatives from the 105 winning dealerships were
invited to Dearborn for a special celebration, where the keys to their
replicas were handed over by Mr. Lee Iacocca himself.
Each of the replicas were coupes painted in Pace
Car White (paint code "C" for '64 1/2) and had white interiors with blue
appointments (code "42"). The cars were equipped with the 260 V8 engine,
power steering, rear back-up lights and automatic transmissions. Other
identifying features of the pace car replicas include pace car blue
racing stripes up the center of the hood and "Official Pace Car" decals
along the sides of the car. The words "PACE CAR" were written on the
radiator support with a grease pencil of some kind, and then later
painted over. The center stripes did not get placed on the taillight
panel around the gas cap on coupes, but they did on the dignitary
convertibles.
 Apparently
some cars did not have the decals installed at the dealership, and due
to a press photo showing a prototype with the stripes installed to one
side rather than down the middle a few cars ended up with the stripes in
this incorrect location.
Another interesting fact with regards to the
replica cars was the lack of outside mirrors. Standard procedure at the
time was for cars to be delivered to the dealerships with the outside
mirrors placed loose inside the car. When the car was prepped by the
dealership the mirrors were then installed. However, the pace car
replicas were not delivered the same way as regular Mustangs... the
Checkered Flag cars were retrieved by the winning dealers from Dearborn,
and the Green Flag cars were retrieved from the District Sales Office by
the dealer. This meant that these cars did not end up with an outside
mirror. The VINs of the cars are sequentially numbered.
1979 Indy Pace Car
With the rebirth of the Mustang in 1979, the Ford
Mustang was once again appointed to pace the 63rd running of
the Indy 500. Jack Roush
 was
commissioned to modify the engines with such items as high-performance
cylinder heads and a Boss 302 camshaft and crankshaft. The exterior was
slightly different and had a T-roof--an option not available on
production cars until 1981.
Ford produced 10,478 pace car replicas for the 1979
model year that were based on the Mustang that paced the Indianapolis
500 for that year. They were based on the standard hatchback model and
all used the same styling cues that were on the actual pace cars. Pewter
and black paint with orange and red stripes made the car standout in a
crowd.
Among the differences between the pace car replica
and the standard Mustang were a raised non-functional cowl induction
style hood, a front fascia with three horizontal grill bars and a lower
front air dam, front Marchal fog lamps, rear spoiler, TRX handling
package with metric wheels and tires, black Recaro front seats with
black and white checkered inserts on both front and rear seats, and
"black chrome" dash inserts with a dash plaque. The buyer had the option
of having the decals installed on the car or just left in a box. The
available engine choices were the 5.0L V-8 with 139 horsepower (with
either a 4spd or automatic) or the 2.3L turbo with 140 horsepower (4spd
only). All of the pace car styling cues were later used on the 1980
Cobra, even the Recaro seats were made an option.
1994 Indy Pace Car
1994 saw a major redesign for the Ford Mustang, as
well as Mustang's return to Indianapolis. The all-new 1994 Mustang
Cobra convertible
 became
the third Mustang to pace the Indy 500. The pony was powered by a
modified version of Ford's 5.0L V-8 engine that produced 240
horsepower. 1963 Indy winner Parnelli Jones was chosen to drive the
pace car.
1000 replicas of the red-and-tan convertible were
produced, along with a replica of the Official Truck of the Indy 500,
the Ford F-150 Lightning. All replicas were painted in striking Rio Red
and had tan leather interiors with the Indy Speedway "wings" embossed on
the headrests of the front seats. A styling bar was added to house the
flashing light unit. The replica rims were the same style as the rest of
the Cobras, but had the recessed portions painted charcoal. Replicas
were delivered to the dealerships with the "OFFICIAL PACE CAR" lettering
and Indy "wings" decals boxed in the trunk. These could be left off, or
installed at the dealership for the new owners. All of the cars used at
the race were automatics; all of the replicas were manuals.
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