My neighbor dropped off some of his old car books today and this one intrigued me. Back in the early 1980s, this car sat across the street from Olds final assembly behind a house on Main street in Lansing. The owner told me it was the car that paced the field at Indy, it had the handles by the back windows, (I didn't believe him), but there was a track sticker in the front window. He would not sell it for any price. It was still complete at that time, but in rough shape. Fast forward to the 1990s, the house was torn down to make room for BRD printing, and the car ended up in a back yard on Holmes rd. in south Lansing with no hood on it, and the engine exposed. I talked to the owner again, he told me he still had the hood, but someone had tried to steal it. The car was very rough, but he still would not sell it. After sitting there for a few years it disappeared again. A friend of mine told me he knew where it was, but he wouldn't tell me where. I'm glad to see someone finally bought it, at an estate sale for $600.00 with no motor, and gave it the restoration it deserved.

 

I wonder what became of the 1971 Dodge Challenger in the upper right corner. It was the pace car that crashed at the track.

Don W

 

http://www.hamtramck-historical.com/...CarCrash.shtml

http://www.fox59.com/sports/wxin-201...,7153843.story

 

Well the car that sat across the street from the Olds plant was a track car however it was not the # 1 pace car. I stopped and visited with the owner back in 1982 when I had my pace car. I don't think he would have talked to me if I hadn't arrived in a car that looked just like his. I saw that car again about 1998 when it was moved from the house on Miller Rd. to a building my father-inlaw owned in N. Lansing. The car was in such bad shape that the shift lever of the duel gate was rusted completely through! A couple of weeks later I saw the car headed north on I-27 on a trailer at 2am in the morning. A relative of the owner told me he took it up north to some property he owned in the middle of the state forest. BTW In 1982 the # 1 pace car was sitting at the corner of Hagadorn and Jolly south of E. lansing. ~BOB

 

Very cool, Thank you for clearing that up. I do remember the one on Jolly and Hagadorn.