This 1988 Pontiac Grand Prix is a previous Daytona 500 pace car

Hopefully, the fans of GM’s W-entire body ’80s/’90s intermediates can forgive us, but we had very significantly neglected — or had in no way definitely identified — that one particular of the ways that era’s Pontiac Grand Prix bathed itself in glory was by serving as the tempo vehicle for the Daytona 500. In point, the Grand Prix paced NASCAR’s marquee race each individual calendar year from 1988 to 1992, and once again in 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2003.

That to start with year, 1988, the Grand Prix was all-new, earning its debut on the W-physique platform. It was also Motor Craze‘s auto of the yr. The 1988 Daytona 500 marked the 17th yr in a row that a Pontiac was picked to set the tempo but the initially time a front-wheel-travel vehicle was so honored. The ’88 Grand Prix followed a spate of Pontiac Trans Ams.

Load Mistake

This ’88 Grand Prix, for sale right now on eBay Motors, is offered as an real pace car, while followers could purchase a finish established of rate auto decals for their pretty own GP. The rate vehicle is centered on that year’s leading-spec Grand Prix, the SE. In area of the conventional car’s 2.8-liter V6, on the other hand, the speed vehicle works by using a modified 3.1-liter V6, which is hooked to a 5-velocity guide transmission. This Grand Prix is or else mostly regular fare excepting the roof-mounted mild bar, the switches for which are situated up coming to the radio. The mechanical odometer tucked into the digital instrument cluster shows just more than 5,000 miles, and presumably, not all of them were being obtained on the significant-banked oval.

With 4 times to go in the auction, bidding sits at $4,000 with the reserve unmet. Though the reserve is unknown, just one clue is that this Grand Prix had been listed by a common-car or truck dealership in Pennsylvania for $18,500.

Apart from the debut of the W-physique Grand Prix pace vehicle, the 1988 race is also notable for its final lap: Bobby Allison held off his son, Davey Allison, to acquire the checkered flag, with the father-son duo taking pleasure in a 1-2 end.

Now, who needs to re-are living all those Grand Prix glory times? Get on your Pontiac and journey!

This 1988 Pontiac Grand Prix is a previous Daytona 500 rate car at first appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 29 Jan 2021 14:48:00 EST. Be sure to see our terms for use of feeds.