The '82-'84 Firebird Zone

A guy named Stephen emailed me saying he thinks he might have a 1982 Daytona Pace Car. I asked him for a pic and he sent me this interesting pic below.

My personal opinion: inconclusive, but where else would you get that rear decal in that color? Looks just like the real deal. I told him to join over here and ask you guys, and thirdgen.org . Interior is light grey PMD. I hope we hear more from him so we can see what he has, or doesn't have.

My guess would be that it was a pace car for a smaller local track...one that wasn't part of the wildly popular circuit. About 20 miles from me, we have a Busch Grand National track with its own pace car used repeatedly.

The red 1982 Trans Am did pace a majority of the 1982 Nascar "Winston Cup" races, around 18 of the 30 events.
You can check the build date to see if it was early enough for the DT500.
They may have recylced some of the cars with new door lettering for the other races (tracks).
Same with 1983 and 1984 pace cars.
In 1983 one track did use a red pace car and was raffled away to one of the audience members.
You might have be able to get the decals from Pontiac.

It's a 01C car, built third week of January 82.

He also wrote me about the drivers door, which is hard to see in the pic:

"it definitely says 'PACE CAR' with the words 'PONTIAC TRANS AM' under it."

So this is quite an interesting car. A couple of things I noticed though: it's a t-top with body side molding and original sail panel eagle and front fender decal, while the known pace cars in the pics are hardtops without body side molding, and without any of those standard decals. Simo, do you know anything else about it? I used to have a big side shot of the Daytona car with the orange warning lights up top, but I can't find it. There's a smallish one here:

That car was originally a hardtop. It now has aftermarket C&C t-tops.

Agent83 wrote:That car was originally a hardtop. It now has aftermarket C&C t-tops.

I am curious how you could tell that? Is it the metal extrusion on the rear side of the roof?

If you look at the distance from the windsheild to the t-top, the fatory t-top is closer the C & C top at more distance.

kizz wrote:It's a 01C car, built third week of January 82.

He also wrote me about the drivers door, which is hard to see in the pic:

"it definitely says 'PACE CAR' with the words 'PONTIAC TRANS AM' under it."

So this is quite an interesting car. A couple of things I noticed though: it's a t-top with body side molding and original sail panel eagle and front fender decal, while the known pace cars in the pics are hardtops without body side molding, and without any of those standard decals. Simo, do you know anything else about it? I used to have a big side shot of the Daytona car with the orange warning lights up top, but I can't find it. There's a smallish one here:

It is early enough for Daytona.
They may have had festival cars as in 1983.
I do not know if they had festival cars in 1984.
I will look through my 1983 Nascar Race Programs (29 of 30) and look for pictures of the different cars.
The programs are at my other house, so it won't be soon.
I have seen some small race track 1982 Red Pace Cars for sale in the past.
I do not collect the 1982 Nascar Race Programs but in the 1983 and 1984 Programs they do show some pictures of that years Pace Cars.

wildjeff wrote:If you look at the distance from the windsheild to the t-top, the fatory t-top is closer the C & C top at more distance.

Ah ok I see it now. Thanks. Now I can keep that in mind when someone claims its a factory T top...of course CC1 is the other way to tell if it is from the factory.

I'm not sure this is the same car but here is a 82 pace car from the 1982 Budweiser 400 June 13, 1982. There was also a parade of red 82 T/A behide it.

Well, here I am...so let's all talk about my car and figure this out...

I added a few photos online that I took yesterday with a nicer camera....

http://s156.photobucket.com/albums/t36/ ... /Firebird/

I REALLY need to figure out what it says below the door molding. It has more wording..but it's usually too late in the afternoon to make it out by the time I get to where the car is.

So, I have aftermarket t-tops, aye? Will that make it hard to replace the headliner?

I can make out the word Official in your one photograph of the car with the close up of the door. Seems more and more likely that you definitely have a Nascar Pacecar now to figure out which one.... I can see if I can make out anything else. see if you can light up the door with more lighting. I am not certain if you can use a normal T-top headliner or not, because of the smaller roof panel openings. You might end up having metal showing. Other than that you might be able to modify a hard top headliner easily. Its a fairly easy job. Take some trim pieces off take the light out, take the shades out and undo the speaker panels as well among a couple other things and swap it out. Maybe an hour or two. I took mine out in an hour or so.

Can you post a pic of the headliner? Recovering it is easy if the structure is good.

wildjeff wrote:I'm not sure this is the same car but here is a 82 pace car from the 1982 Budweiser 400 June 13, 1982. There was also a parade of red 82 T/A behide it.

My GOD, what a beautiful sight!!!! Be still, my heart!!

The motor and transmission were removed long ago. I need to get a hold of the guy who gave me the car so I can get a hold of the guy who gave him the car...need to see if I can find the original motor. At least when the motor/trans was removed the wiring harnesses were not damaged or cut.

It's been sitting for a LONG time...lots of spider webs and interior damage. The headliner is a total loss at this point...the entire center section between the tops is missing and I can see bare metal. I'm thinking at this point to get the fiberglass headliner board and modifying it as suggested.

I'll take a REAL close look at the doors today. Both of them have the "removed" sticker look, but the drivers door is more legible. Were these cars numbered with any special sequence or was there any plaques or anything affixed to the interior?

I'm not interested in selling it yet. With the engine and transmission missing, it wouldn't be worth much even if I welded a new roof on. Someone did a pretty good job of killing the value of this car...but I'd like to get it back to it's former glory as much as I can...since no one else seems to have an official 82 pace car out there.

I posted this over on Thirdgen.org - but here's a scan of the pace car from a Trans Am book I have:



Joe

check out the cool, ultra-modern early digital watch that the guy is wearing with his hand in the first race track picture. The display is tiny.. i remember when they used to look like that. hehe.

Welcome to the site saf0775 and firebirdta84!

I have a couple of pictures of a surving 82 T/A pace car. I'll have to post them up when I get home.

It says "Daytona 500 Feb 14th" on the lower half of my doors, and I noticed from the inside (looking out the windshield) you can clearcly see the remains of the "Pontiac" sticker. Im still searching for the build sheet.

holy crap dude. If it indeed says that you might have a hell of a find. Too bad there is really no market for these cars yet. Of course some one could have had decals made...unlikely though.