[marxjunk]

define: brass hat
noun-informal
a high-ranking officer in the armed forces.

as it applies here:
a special car for a special person...a high ranking person in a company or society..

so no not the same..but a Pace car built for Bill France would be a brass hat car..

zone cars are diff, they where demonstrators that usually zone managers ordered and drove for an amount of time, then turned back into inventory...