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1988 PPG Gold Cutlass Convertible Pace Car


IRONDOG442

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i remember these cars (the whole list of the auction mostly) and have pics from way back in the day at the CART races in cleveland, i'll have to dig for them. i went to every race from 86-96 and know i have images of this cutlass somewhere, and i for certain know the chevy truck in question with the t tops and seats in the bed, and would kill someone for the widebody 82 camaro.

 

when i lived in the city the PPG guys would take the pace cars out on the streets and fool around, we used to see them running around town without plates.

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i remember these cars (the whole list of the auction mostly) and have pics from way back in the day at the CART races in cleveland, i'll have to dig for them. i went to every race from 86-96 and know i have images of this cutlass somewhere,

 

Please dig them out, I'd love to see them.

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i remember these cars (the whole list of the auction mostly) and have pics from way back in the day at the CART races in cleveland, i'll have to dig for them. i went to every race from 86-96 and know i have images of this cutlass somewhere,

 

Please dig them out, I'd love to see them.

ditto. also, before 1992, this car may have been red, and/or black, before it received the new body kit and clip.

 

Shall I tell another secret? the glove compartment had an old insurance card, with "red cutlass" written on it! :biggrin:

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I have 289 photos of the car. I need to weed out and select my favorites to post. at about 20 seconds each to load... and thats just to view and decide if the picture is good.... @$@#^(*&(* but I am working on it.

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I HATE Photobucket. :( I am having a very hard time getting it to do what I want. but I am trying very very hard. more pics are going up, bit by bit.

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i will work more on it later. I's tired. I have it set up with each page being a subsection, so you have several general areas of topics on the car.

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New member here... I got pointed to the thread and thought I'd add a comment or two. BTW, the 88 pace car in the Indy museum photos near the beginning of the thread are from my site. Took them back in '88 when I dropped in at the museum on my way to the US Nationals...

 

While I don't have photos of the 88 PPG car in question, I do have photos from 85 that may be relevant. They were taken at the Miller 200 in Milwaukee which is usually a week after Indy.

 

What you see is one of the real 85 Indy Pace Cars that has magically become a PPG pace car. They used it to pace the race. Beyond the car looking like an Indy pace car (colors, interior, rims, etc), the under hood photo clearly shows Indy 500 on the valve cover. They used another Indy 500 pace car convertible replica (still labeled for Indy) as a track car. It looked like a pace car, but had a bone stock "Tech 4" engine (with no muffler).

 

If they turned an '85 Indy pace car (maybe the backup car?) into a PPG car after the race, it wouldn't surprise me that they would do it again in '88.

 

img267.jpgimg268.jpg

 

They had a fleet of PPG cars there. Most were butt-ugly! The other Olds they had that year was a convertible Ciera as follows:

img269.jpg

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BTW, the 88 pace car in the Indy museum photos near the beginning of the thread are from my site.

Mantei.com? :D just saw that this weekend! thats is excellent info, thank you!

 

so, where are the good pics at? :D ....did they let you fire it up?

Honestly... the odd lighting and lack of tripod made all the far off shots look like crap, coupled with a damaged camera... I posted the best I had.

 

I wish. the batteries were toast. I was lucky the guy went and got the keys so I could open the trunk!!!

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Well... is it really a Tonneau Cover or top cladding?

 

Reason being that one covers an existing passenger cover and the other is a cosmetic piece covering up what would have been rear deck.

 

It's still kick ass all around. Is this the very setup like the car in the R.E.Olds museum???

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My .02cents on the car that was auctioned off today I think this was the body that was used to pace the race in 88. I haven't been able to track down the pace car where abouts as of today. The only thing that does not make sense is the car having a vin#. The mules that were used to make these cars would not have had a vin#s. The hood vent was probly grafted from the 88 hood to this newer one. I could be wrong and most times I am wrong but just my.02 cents.

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I don't have Ken as a friend on myspace........I'm actually surprised Ken has one :lol:

 

Not his page...Mine. lol

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My .02cents on the car that was auctioned off today I think this was the body that was used to pace the race in 88. I haven't been able to track down the pace car where abouts as of today. The only thing that does not make sense is the car having a vin#. The mules that were used to make these cars would not have had a vin#s. The hood vent was probly grafted from the 88 hood to this newer one. I could be wrong and most times I am wrong but just my.02 cents.

 

Did you catch the price it was sold at?

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