WANTED - 1979 Indy Pace Car Mustangs

WANTED - 1979 Indy Pace Car Mustangs

3 Mustangs were specially prepared to pace the Indy 500 in 1979. Where are they now?

Author: Bo Durban/Wednesday, September 19, 2012/Categories: Most Wanted

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In 1979 the Mustang was chosen once again to pace the annual Indianapolis 500 race. 3 all-new Fox chassis Mustangs were specially prepared for the task.

Roush Industries built special 5.0L V8 engines which included 351W heads, Boss 302 camshaft, 289 Hi-Po springs, TRW pistons and a Holly carb. These were backed by modified C-4 transmissions.

Ford build over 10,000 replica versions of the pace car. The replicas had the same unique bumper and hood. Plus the unique red and orange stripe kit as well as other styling cues. What makes the pace-duty cars visually unique are the T-Tops. T-Tops were not offered on the production Mustang for a couple more years.

One of the pace cars is rumored to be in the Hall of Fame Museum at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. If anyone in the area can confirm this, we would like to know. A current picture of the car and a confirmation of the VIN, would be nice too!

The other 2 Pace cars are in Livonia Michgan at Jack Roush's Museum. A photo of them appeared in an article in the October, 2010 issue of Mustang Monthly. They were both painted white when they were used to pace the Detroit Grand Prix in 1982.

When I was at Roush's in September, 2011, only one of the cars was on display. A local man, familiar with the cars, said the other car was undergoing a restoration. Possibly back to its original 1979 Indy Pace Car configuration.

Profile: 9F03F100024 - In Roush Museum
Profile: 9F03F102848 - In Roush Museum - Rumored to be undergoing a restoration
Profile: 9F03F10???? - In Indianapolis Museum?

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1 comments on article "WANTED - 1979 Indy Pace Car Mustangs"

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tang-guy

8/11/2014 3:02 PM

I've come across a '79 C-4 trans that may have been in one of the pace cars. The factory tag is factory stamped " PEE_ ET1__ M18B ". the second line is: " D9BP_KA ". The underscores are approx. spaces.

The back side of this tag is hand tool punched with: " XD9ZP-EEET- 20 ".

The flexplate is the larger dia.(174 T.?) ring gear, but has mount hole pattern (~9 1/2") for a small torque conv. bolt pattern. it has a .060 in. thick flange spacer tack (heli-arc) welded to it at four spots. It has some hand scribed/factory type marks - two or three characters. Illegible to me. It also has a large number " 3 " on it. It has the small 28 oz.(?) weight on it

The torque conv. has a small attach bolt pattern, as mentioned above. The overall dia. is about 10-7/8".

The hub nose is about ¼" longer than the regular Ford units I've seen. It has four hand scribed notations indicating 90 degree positions (of rotation?) and one of the positions also has " #3 " etched with it.

This matches some of the other info I've come across re these modified C-4 transmissions. This one has one feature or 'defect', I've not been able to find more info on. It has only one forward/drive position of the trans lever. There is no low position of the lever. However, in the drive position, the trans functions normally as a regular C-4, with good shifting thru the three gears/speeds.

My thoughts are- this one-drive position was done for simplied, easy use of this car because as they were driven by numerous different individuals or something has broke or been modified with this one.

Would like to hear if anyone might have any other info relative to these transmissions. This one could be available if it is truly one of the actual pace car trans.

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