GM brought out the Indy Fiero Pace car for display at the 2019 Woodward Dream Cruise (Page 2/2)
Spoon AUG 24, 10:11 PM
Great info RAREW66. Do you know if those strobe lights were off the shelf items at the time or did the mfg of the strobes go into overtime to have them ready in 2-3 days?

Spoon

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"Kilgore Trout once wrote a short story which was a dialogue between two pieces of yeast. They were discussing the possible purposes of life as they ate sugar and suffocated in their own excrement. Because of their limited intelligence, they never came close to guessing that they were making champagne." - Kurt Vonnegut

hyperv6 AUG 25, 11:42 AM

quote
Originally posted by RAREW66:

All three of the Indy Fiero Pace Cars were equipped with the camera mount and modification to trunk sheet metal and rear clip for the camera lens through the tail light. Only one RH tail light was modified for the camera lens hole which remains with Pace Car #2 at IMS. The idea for the ABC Wide World of Sports Pace Car Camera came about 9 days before Race Day. The prototyping shop at PMD in Pontiac MI basically had 8 days to engineer and build the camera brackets, tail light assembly, and modifications needed to the three cars already at the track. This also included the provisions for the added electrical load and wiring needed for the transmitter from the camera to the studio truck. The necessary equipment was delivered to the track two days before Race Day. Needless to say, it was a long night for the onsite Pontiac technicians to get the cars modified and ready for on-track testing the day before Race Day.

My Pace Car #3 has what is left of the camera mount brackets that were tack welded to the trunk floor. All of the associated camera equipment was removed when PPG modified the car with updated safety equipment and upgraded strobe light system required by CART to pace at the other Indy Car venues. When I first purchased the car, I thought about making a modified tail light assembly and mock a camera lens just because I could. The problem with the idea was that I would need to disturb the components installed in the car. Since the car is all original unrestored, I did not want to disturb the patina of the abuse the car went through while serving pace car duties with the Indy Car World Series Pace Car Fleet.

On a side note, these three pace cars are not included in the roster of the 2000 production Indy Fiero Pace Cars including one pilot prototype. The three cars have early VIN numbers produced at the factory in early October 1983 and were shipped directly to the engine development division of Pontiac Motorsports. The interesting part of the story on these three cars is that when the cars were built on the assembly line at Plant 17, they were fitted with pre-production Indy aero body panels, Indy interior and associated pace car badging long before the final decisions were made by PMD as to how the production car was going to be offered to the public. The designations of the three-track prepared pace cars 1, 2 and 3 are merely just reference numbers that the guys working at the track for PMD made upon their notes to tell the three cars apart.

Fred



Thanks Fred I still have some things in my memory yet.

We still need to do a book! This stuff needs to be documented even if it is only on the web.

2.5 AUG 26, 12:43 PM
Cool stuff Fred