eBay Find Of The Day: Is This ’79 Mustang Indy Pace Car a Rare Find?

One of the original ads for the '79 Indy Pace Car. Image: The Mustang Source

Two years ago no one saw it coming, not even us; the rebirth of the haloed “5.0” Mustang. With the sales of the new Camaro pretty much out of this world (outselling the Mustang and Challenger combined), Ford realized they had to pull something out of their @$$, and fast! After it became clear that the simple body update and an increase of 15hp on their 3V 4.6L for 2010 wasn’t going to cut it for 2011, the geeks in the engineering department put together what the Mustang GT should’ve had between its fenders in the first place –a DOHC 5-liter with 400hp-plus.

This 32 year-old isn't showing its age. Images: eBay Motors

Since then, the press has been hyping the new Pony up, some going as far as comparing it to a new BMW M3. Whatever, we just appreciate Ford’s new commitment in building the Mustang as good as they can make it.

But looking back at the start of the “5.0” hoopla, we find a car that many of you may either love or hate. It’s a ’79 Mustang Indy Pace Car found on eBay that served as the official timekeeper’s daily driver for the month of May, ’79.

While that doesn’t sound like an entirely interesting story in itself, it was also used as to do qualifying runs, and as a billboard for the local Ford dealership.

As added perk, it also got to go an additional two laps around the fabled race track with the sales manager of the local Ford dealership behind the wheel.

Now while there were a total of 10,478 Pace Cars made, only three of those actually paced the race, and fifty were used as “festival cars,” while this one wasn’t either of those but became important in its own right.

After it had its 15 minutes of fame it was retired to the dealership’s showroom, where the dealership owner initially had no intention of selling it after that. Well, money speaks louder than emotions to some people and after only two shorts months serving as a “conversation piece,” the Indy Mustang found a new home.

Although not packing quite the same punch of today's 5-Oh, the '79 variant was sufficient for the times.

It would eventually go through two more owners before ending up with its current owner, who also happens to be the seller. It comes complete with all paperwork, including a Marti Report, and tons of memorabilia. Although it has a few cosmetic blemishes and a few of its accessories are non-functional, it’s still completely stock and “98%” original and only shows just over 93k miles, which is really low when you think about it.

The auction for this car has been relisted as a result of not many enthusiasts realizing the rarity and collectability of these cars.

A Buy-It-Now price of $8500 may sound steep to some, but for a future collector’s item we think that’s a fair price. Especially due to the fact that this was only the second time in the Mustang’s then 15-year lifespan that it served as a pace car for the Indy 500, we think it’s a car worth having. It wouldn’t be used as a pace car again until the ’94 Cobra, and it hasn’t been since.