[StealthBird]

Ok, thanks for the info, I didn't know that about the 71 Challengers. They were not R/T's, correct? Just regular Challengers?

I was really focusing on the 66-70 era of Pace Cars that Diego was talking about when he brought up his opinion that in those years, the Pace Cars were not necessarily performance equipped. I threw in the 71 Challenger as an afterthought as I went through the list.

My point was that the 66-69 Pace Cars were built on PERFORMANCE models. The Pace Cars from 66-69 (the cars Diego mentioned) were performance based (yes, the Torino GT too). Forget about engine size for a moment, the Torino GT, Comet GT, and Camaro RS/SS, were all special models off the base models; Torino, Comet, and Camaro. They did not produce standard Torino Pace Cars, base Comet Pace Cars, or base Camaro Pace Cars, correct? But Oldsmobile did in 1970. That was my whole point. Now, if the Indy 500 committee awarded the 1970 Cutlass as their choice for Pace Car, then it's understandable why they made Cutlass Pace Cars. But they chose the 442, not the Cutlass.

In general, it seems like manufacturers slathered up the Indy Pace Cars with stripes and stickers, perhaps some special paint schemes (77 Olds, 78 Corvette, etc), and occasionally, they were not performance cars at all. But when a manufacturer was awarded Pace Car status, such as in the case of the Indy Pace Car committee choosing the Olds 442 as the 1970 Pace Car, why build some off the base Cutlass model, and with a 350?

Other than the 73 Eldorado, Pace Cars appeared to be the "performance" version of a base model.

1972 Hurst/Olds
1973 Eldorado (not a performance car)
1974 Hurst/Olds
1975 Buick Century (not a performance car)
1976 Buick Century (Turbo)
1977 Olds Delta 88 (2-door model, with a 403 engine)
1978 Corvette
1979 Mustang II (V8)
1980 Trans Am (Turbo)
1981 Buick Regal (Turbo)
1982 Chevy Z-28
1983 Riviera (Turbo)
1984 Fiero (GT version)
1985 Cutlass Calais (not a performance car)
1986 Corvette
1987 LeBaron (Turbo)
1988 Olds Cutlass (not a performance car, but the best Olds had)
1989 Trans Am Turbo
1990 Berreta (Quad 4)
1991 Viper
1992 Cadillac Allante (Northstar)
1993 Z-28
1994 Mustang Cobra
1995 Corvette
1996 Viper
1997 Olds Aurora
1998 Corvette
etc

When Pontiac was awarded the Pace Car honors in 1989 for their 20th Anniversary Turbo Trans Am, they did not offer a Pace Car replica on a base Firebird, slathered up in stripes and decals.

Now, back to the ORIGINAL point of this whole thread...the 1970 Olds 442 Pace Car that was seen at a local cruise night was a COPO, and we will see if Rockdaddy has any further information on this car. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/burnout.gif[/img]

All the other info shared in this thread was fantastic. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]