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1976 pace car. how many really left ?


Guest werpknarly

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Guest werpknarly

we just bought a recent frame off restored 1976 buick pace car. Anyone have any idea how many days are really left?

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I don't think there is any accurate way to determine for certain. I have one, but there are some things on the car that don't jive. I know of one degrading outside west of here (that I ultimately want to purchase). There was one with a poor restoration near Edmonton that was for sale for too much money. There was one in Oshawa for the GM of Canada centennial. Of course, Alan O. has one.

Collectible, yes. Price guides don't really reflect a premium relative to a Century. Club registries don't necessarily give us a good number since they won't always be listed as PCRs.

It it would be neat to know.

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I had one in "very poor" condition I used for parts to convert my 76 Regal S/R into a look a like. So I know of at least one that did not survive. There were no specific VIN numbers to determine a Pace Car Replica from a Century. I ended up selling my car to a gentleman in California and he has since sold it. I don't know where it ended up. In hindsight I should have kept the Regal S/R a Regal S/R as I never see those up for sale.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest werpknarly

i like your math, what may make this more interesting is that they never a desirable car.. in fact pretty un-desirable

ive heard may dealers "de-pace car"'d them to get them to move off the lots. buick buyers didnt want a pace car loaded with graphics. performance buyers didnt want a de-tuned smogged up buick plastered with stickers.... and the t-tops leaked like a sive to boot.

thanks for all the feed back so far.

when i found this one i knew of 5 for sale, which included the ones others have posted.. only two worth buying, only one owner willing to negotiate.. thats the one i bought

since then, ive seen none.

I don't but would like to know so instead of sitting on my butt I can be driving my 72 Triple Black Centurion.

For a serious response, there were 1290 made in 1976, so you have a rare car. It's been 38 years. These would have been used cars through probably 1990? Thereafter, what was left would have been collected. My educated guess is 15% of them remain. That's 193 in any condition. Even though a percentage after 15 years would have been collected, if they were unrestored, sitting, then they might be gone now as well. It's tough to justify a proper restoration of a PCR, because of lack of restoration resources.

I worked out a formula years ago with a college statistics professor. I believe we used some national statistics data base. If the car is desirable (any car, speaking) then it will start to be collected more or less after 15 years. By 15 years, at least 50% of that car is gone from usefulness. May still be in a salvage yard.

When you consider the Pace Car Replica (PCR), with it's graphics and special features, these would or should have survived at a slightly higher percentage. It wasn't a sleeper car. If it had a specific VIN for the PCR then there are companies out there that monitor national registrations. I think one of the BCA members tracks Reattas this way and has seen an alarming trend with Reattas dropping like flies off the registration rolls this last year.

Reattas were built over 4 years and are 23-26 years old.

Unless you can check national registrations, we are just speculating, but I would guess there are 170-200 of these in all conditions, left.

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