I have been researching the various Indy 500 Pace Cars for an upcoming book and have access to a law enforcement/insurance database to find info on cars. For the years 1990 to date I have most of the VINs of the cars used at the track as Festival or Track cars, as well as those sent to dealers. There were assignment sheets each year to show to whom a specific car was assigned. I would love to find the 1994 sheet, though I do have the information. Ford sent Mustang GTs (NOT Cobras) to Roush to convert to be used as Pace Cars, mainly because they were automatic shift. These had the Cobra bumpers installed for the race. Over 100 Mustang GTs were used as Festival and Track cars for the race period-there were no Cobras at the track as far as I can tell.
I have been able to compile the VIN and Build info as well as the Cobra number of 976 out of the 1000 Cobra converts made. The first two cars were made March 4 (#4 and #5) while cars #1, 2, 6 were made March 5. Twenty cars were made March 7, Twenty Four on March 8, with the last group made April 16. I am missing the last six of the VIN for the following cars:
114 627 666 667 668 669 670 671 696 697 895 976 977 978 979 980 981 987 988 996 997 998 999
Anyone have any info on these? I just need the last six digits of the VIN and I may be able to locate the rest of them. Thanks
@tbenvie
I had to reread your initial post quoted above…
My 1994 Cobra coupe was built March 4, 1994 per the SVT Certificate and it’s build is #13. I find it interesting that you’re saying SVT Pace Cars #4 and #5 were also built on same day. Do you happen to know if either of those Pace Cars still exist today? The lowest build # I had in my list of 1994 Cobras (aside from mine) is Pace Car #8, which is still in existence today.
What I find even more interesting is that my Cobra’s BUC tag has Mo/Day stamped on it as 01/24 and the VCL on B-pillar is also 01/94. I can’t figure out the correlation being the SVT cert is 03/04/1994…. Is the date on BUC and VCL the date the VIN was actually issued (birthed) and the car was built on 03/04/94?
Also, how were you able to compile the Pace Car listing with the SVT #’s to the VINs? Do you have any such matches for the coupes?
——
Here’s some info for others regarding the (122) 1994 “GT” Pace Cars (not many folks are aware of these unique Mustangs). There were also (5) 1994 PPG Pace Cars - extremely rare today.
PPG Pace Car info:
Ford Mustang Cobra (Red) – 1994 PPG Pace Car – PPG Pace Cars