1978 L82 pace car garage find ! 13 miles in the wrapper.

[Tom H.]

Hey all !! I just had to share this one with you all. It just goes to show that they are still out there. This is one we drug home last week from the garage of the original owner. He bought it new, parked it and never messed with it again. We actually had to dig it out of his garage. You couldn't even walk around it. 13 miles on it. Window sticker still on it. L82 automatic with gymkhana and CB.
It is an amazing car. Although it's filthy dirty, it was very well preserved. Never touched. It's in the wrapper and still even has the original battery in it.
I sold it to a friend of mine but am displaying it in the showroom until the transport picks it up.
If any members in the Ohio area would like to see it, I'd be glad to show it to you.

[Mike M.]

Re: 1978 L82 pace car garage find ! 13 miles in the wrapper.

tom: come up to maryland and get my 84 with 7 miles and not nearly the barn dust. mike

[Tom H.]

Re: 1978 L82 pace car garage find ! 13 miles in the wrapper.

tom: come up to maryland and get my 84 with 7 miles and not nearly the barn dust. mike

Anybody can find a clean one !!!

[Dick W.]

Re: 1978 L82 pace car garage find ! 13 miles in the wrapper.

One guy here has/had three of them. Bought them, had them loaded directly on his trailer (one at a time) as they came off the convoy truck. Blank MSO's, still have the shiping was, wrappers, etc. Never had PDI performed. He also jumped on a ZR-1, same deal as the pace cars, paid sticker +10%. A couple of years ago he tried to start the ZR-1, cost him over $1,500 to get it running.

[Jim S.]

Re: 1978 L82 pace car garage find ! 13 miles in the wrapper.

You hardly ever saw any '78 Pace Cars on the road back in 1978. I'll bet that over half of them were squirreled away in barns, garages, or other storage places. Most of them are probably still in hibernation.

Jim

[Clem Z.]

Re: 1978 L82 pace car garage find ! 13 miles in the wrapper.

One guy here has/had three of them. Bought them, had them loaded directly on his trailer (one at a time) as they came off the convoy truck. Blank MSO's, still have the shiping was, wrappers, etc. Never had PDI performed. He also jumped on a ZR-1, same deal as the pace cars, paid sticker +10%. A couple of years ago he tried to start the ZR-1, cost him over $1,500 to get it running.

a friend of mine bought 78 pace car a few years ago for window sticker. it was brand new never driven. my dealer back in the day was taking them to the auction and getting $20K + and he wanted to know if i wanted one. when i found out there were going to be one for every dealer i said no thanks. i knew from the number down the road they were not going to be collectibles with than many built. mrs clem when she was at the dealership wrote a deal for over $70 K for one of the first ZR-1 when they came out and this buyer also flat bedded it home. i don't understand the thinking behind buying these cars that are built in the thousands as these are not like low number builts like ferraris. a friend who had corvette collection told me any car built in double digit numbers will never be valuable.

[Stuart F.]

Re: 1978 L82 pace car garage find ! 13 miles in the wrapper.

Actually, it would be interesting to see what shape it is in when cleaned up. My son and I have seen a lot of low mileage 78 pc's (he owned 3) and the worst ones were ones that just sat. Roger's here in Orlando has one with 13 miles on it as well and you can see every seam - why I don't know, but my son had some down in the hundreds of miles that were far better. You just never know what you got until the dust comes off.

Stu Fox

[Kenneth B.]

Re: 1978 L82 pace car garage find ! 13 miles in the wrapper.

Actually, it would be interesting to see what shape it is in when cleaned up. My son and I have seen a lot of low mileage 78 pc's (he owned 3) and the worst ones were ones that just sat. Roger's here in Orlando has one with 13 miles on it as well and you can see every seam - why I don't know, but my son had some down in the hundreds of miles that were far better. You just never know what you got until the dust comes off.

Stu Fox

I bought a 78 Pace car with 4 Mi at Auburn from a dealer in a St. Lewis suburb. It was the worst Corvette I have ever saw. It was SN64 & had over spray,paint drips & was general a piece of crap. I got two new t-Tops in a box becaues the ones from the factroy were cracked when installed. So much for perfect factory Corvettes LOL
KEN

[Tom H.]

Re: 1978 L82 pace car garage find ! 13 miles in the wrapper.

I bought a 78 Pace car with 4 Mi at Auburn from a dealer in a St. Lewis suburb. It was the worst Corvette I have ever saw. It was SN64 & had over spray,paint drips & was general a piece of crap. I got two new t-Tops in a box becaues the ones from the factroy were cracked when installed. So much for perfect factory Corvettes LOL
KEN

I have had a lot of pace cars here at the dealership. Never saw one that was really, really nice without many flaws. Probably some of the sloppiest work the General ever put out, but still one of my all time favorite Corvettes !!

Probably the nicest one I ever had here was the last one built. Number 6502. We recently sold it. It was very, very nice. I think it got a few extra touches and attention at the factory.

[Pete B.]

Re: 1978 L82 pace car garage find ! 13 miles in the wrapper.

I was thinking the same thing...I was judging chassis in 7 Springs a few years ago, When I heard that it had 30 miles on it I was sure it had 30k!!
It was terribly rusty all over. I did feel bad for the owner as he never looked it over and just figured he had a new car.

Actually, it would be interesting to see what shape it is in when cleaned up. My son and I have seen a lot of low mileage 78 pc's (he owned 3) and the worst ones were ones that just sat. Roger's here in Orlando has one with 13 miles on it as well and you can see every seam - why I don't know, but my son had some down in the hundreds of miles that were far better. You just never know what you got until the dust comes off.

Stu Fox

[Joe L.]

Re: 1978 L82 pace car garage find ! 13 miles in the wrapper.

I have had a lot of pace cars here at the dealership. Never saw one that was really, really nice without many flaws. Probably some of the sloppiest work the General ever put out, but still one of my all time favorite Corvettes !!

Probably the nicest one I ever had here was the last one built. Number 6502. We recently sold it. It was very, very nice. I think it got a few extra touches and attention at the factory.

Tom------


Sloppy workmanship? I guess so! In 1978 St. Louis cranked out almost 47,000 Corvettes from an obsolete factory that was probably stressed to put out 25,000 cars a year. How they built the bodies for all these cars had to involve a lot of marginal work.

[Tom H.]

Re: 1978 L82 pace car garage find ! 13 miles in the wrapper.

Tom------


Sloppy workmanship? I guess so! In 1978 St. Louis cranked out almost 47,000 Corvettes from an obsolete factory that was probably stressed to put out 25,000 cars a year. How they built the bodies for all these cars had to involve a lot of marginal work.

I fully understand the plant situation completely. But you can't hardly argue the 78's were some of the worst we ever got. Still one of my favorits. I own one !

[Joe L.]

Re: 1978 L82 pace car garage find ! 13 miles in the wrapper.

I fully understand the plant situation completely. But you can't hardly argue the 78's were some of the worst we ever got. Still one of my favorits. I own one !

Tom-----


As far as styling goes, I think the 78-79 were the best looking of the 74-82 C3's.

[Clem Z.]

Re: 1978 L82 pace car garage find ! 13 miles in the wrapper.

Tom------


Sloppy workmanship? I guess so! In 1978 St. Louis cranked out almost 47,000 Corvettes from an obsolete factory that was probably stressed to put out 25,000 cars a year. How they built the bodies for all these cars had to involve a lot of marginal work.

you can see how many new corvettes i have had and believe me they were not the best put together cars GM build BUT they were the best bang for the buck back then and still today in spite of their warts.

[Dan T.]

Re: 1978 L82 pace car garage find ! 13 miles in the wrapper.

I owned 1978, cream/cream L82 automatic years ago. I thought it was a nice car. Purchased it from a friend of mine. Never really had a lot of trouble with it. We put a little pin striping down the side in brown to give it a little different look.
I did look at a new pace car at a dealership in Denver. I enjoyed seeing the color combo. They were selling 10 over the sticker price here too. Needless to say I passed on that one.
My wife likes the 98 pace car. That has some pop. Plus it's a C-5. I love the looks of C-5's.
Dan Termeer 2325
I have a C-6, and a C-2 BB, It's Silver & Black.