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Show Car to Indy?

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Old Feb 14, 2006 | 03:07 PM
  #1  
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Show Car to Indy?

From Indystar, scroll down to the last paragraph:

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...602040415/1052

In 1992, if memory serves me right, a prototype Viper paced the Indy 500 one year before the production Viper was released, could history repeat itself this time for a certain Chevy prototype?
Old Feb 14, 2006 | 03:09 PM
  #2  
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Re: Show Car to Indy?

That would be sweet! too bad it's not gonna happen
Old Feb 14, 2006 | 03:19 PM
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Re: Show Car to Indy?

Originally Posted by OzoneNorth
From Indystar, scroll down to the last paragraph:

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...602040415/1052

In 1992, if memory serves me right, a prototype Viper paced the Indy 500 one year before the production Viper was released, could history repeat itself this time for a certain Chevy prototype?
Wrong.... to a very large degree.

The year Viper paced the Indy 500 (1996), it was supposed to be the Dodge Stealth. Late in the game, there was a big blowup over the Stealth being a Japanese car (it's essentially a streached Mitsubishi Eclipse).

Chrysler got special permission to use the Viper because pace cars at Indy MUST be production models. Since Viper was due out later that year (not a year later), officials gave the car the go-ahead to pace that year (Chrysler at the time had nothing else capable of pacing the Indianapolis 500).


For you trivia fans, the Dodge Viper pacecar was driven by no other than Chrysler's Bob Lutz.

Chevy sort of blazed a trail having a company executive driving an Indy 500 pace car. The previous year, Chevy's Jim Perkins drove a Corvette, in '93 he drove a Z28, & a Chevy Baretta in 1990.... (yes, Baretta was used as a pace car with a Camaro and Corvette sitting in the lineup ).

You aren't going to see a Camaro pacing the Indy 500 unless it either is in production, or within months of going into production... assuming Chevy gets it in 2007 or 2008.

Last edited by guionM; Feb 14, 2006 at 03:24 PM.
Old Feb 14, 2006 | 05:33 PM
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Re: Show Car to Indy?

Originally Posted by guionM
Wrong.... to a very large degree.

The year Viper paced the Indy 500 (1991), it was supposed to be the Dodge Stealth. Late in the game, there was a big blowup over the Stealth being a Japanese car (it's essentially a streached Mitsubishi Eclipse).
Im sure it was a typo, but it needed to be corrected.

Last edited by 72 Z27; Feb 14, 2006 at 05:36 PM.
Old Feb 14, 2006 | 05:42 PM
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Re: Show Car to Indy?

Originally Posted by guionM
Wrong.... to a very large degree.

The year Viper paced the Indy 500 (1996), it was supposed to be the Dodge Stealth. Late in the game, there was a big blowup over the Stealth being a Japanese car (it's essentially a streached Mitsubishi Eclipse).

.
Guy,

You one of my heroes, but I have to respectively disagree with you. I'm home from work now and have one of my Viper brochures open, the FIRST time Viper paced the Indy 500 was the 1991 race. To quote the brochure "One event that spurred VIPER developement was...being selected to provide a pace car for the 1991 Indy 500. that meant that Team VIPER had to have a functional vehicle identicle to the production VIPER-but more than six months before production".

Still, probably another Corvette will pace Indy this year, but what great press for Chevy if Camaro could.....
Old Feb 14, 2006 | 05:48 PM
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Re: Show Car to Indy?

I believe the Viper GTS Coupe was the pace car in 1996 (?)
Old Feb 14, 2006 | 06:31 PM
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Re: Show Car to Indy?

Originally Posted by guionM
Wrong.... to a very large degree.

Chrysler got special permission to use the Viper because pace cars at Indy MUST be production models. Since Viper was due out later that year (not a year later), officials gave the car the go-ahead to pace that year
Am I the only one who noticed the "not a year later." Is Camaro coming a year later??? As in 2007??? See quote in sig...
Old Feb 14, 2006 | 07:25 PM
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Re: Show Car to Indy?

Originally Posted by OzoneNorth
Guy,

You one of my heroes, but I have to respectively disagree with you...
Originally Posted by 72 Z27
Im sure it was a typo, but it needed to be corrected.
It was a typo guys.

1991 was the Viper (Shelby driving).
1996 was the Viper again (with Lutz).

'91 was the pace car swap with Chrysler.

I missed the "proof read" button.

Originally Posted by Abidar
Am I the only one who noticed the "not a year later." Is Camaro coming a year later??? As in 2007??? See quote in sig...
We are in the 2007 model year right now.

IF GM brought the Camaro out during the 2008 model year, it would have to start manufacturing by December 31st 2007.

Again, IF there is any truth to GM's 18 month development, and they give the green light mid-year as everyone from Lutz on down is hinting, that would bring it at the very end of 2007 (as an '08) or early 2008 (as an '09).

Last edited by guionM; Feb 14, 2006 at 07:32 PM.
Old Feb 14, 2006 | 10:47 PM
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Re: Show Car to Indy?

In response to your post...

Damn, I need to graduate.
Old Feb 15, 2006 | 09:59 PM
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Re: Show Car to Indy?

anyone miss the part of the Stealth being a stretched eclpise??
It was a 3000GT not an eclipse..
Old Feb 15, 2006 | 10:03 PM
  #11  
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Thumbs up Re: Show Car to Indy?

who could forget this..in 1996



the grand daddy to the SRT-10 Ram

and I did say something simmilar to what might happen..but I said Daytona:

the NAIAS show next year will have a prototype that will be the basis of the Daytona 500 pace car for 2007, maybee even one of the concepts done over in the pace car theme..a throwback to the 69 white and orange striped pace car with a little more flare to it..maybee some phantom checkerboard patter in the stripes..and some really nice stobe light placements..

something GM can do with the concept since it is already built..

..yup..thats right 2007 Daytona 500 is going to be paced by the new

2007.5 Camaro Z/28

The pace car will be a heritage styles after the 69 pace car with the Z/28 moniker on its sides. These "test shot" vehicles will be put out for the public to see. These test vehicles that will be in the show will be the shakedown cars for the plant. onceovered for saftey and track duty.

after that a certain amount of Z/28 models will be build..all with the same paintscheme, nothing else.
40? 100? 1967? It wont be a long run of Camaros, but this will get the plant up and running for the 2008. and get the name and hype about Camaro.

ALL 2007.5 Camaro's will be Z/28's, as a nod to listening to the fans of Camaro and for GM an easy way to get a stipped down back to basics car out to the public fast, without alot of possible new car glitches
This will drive up the demand and the rarity and specialty of the car.

.when they sell out.. The Z/28 will then be gone while the 2008 Camaro gets under way with the SS showing up to take its place. the SS will take center stage for 2008 with 2009 as the return of the Z/28 again as the replacement for the 1LE optioned Camaro.


Sounds strange but think about it..the original Z/28 was a race car a stripped model..what other car can come out brand new hold that heritage, get the point across and do it in a way that wont devalue the Camaro..it will be what the Z/28 was..and this prevents the new car problems of something coming out so fast..
Z/28 is that car.

After those cars get rolling the hype will be there..though no Z/28's will be avalible the SS will be there and the base Camaro..for now..
a year later we get the Z/28 back in any color you want and an option package that goes to almost the SS level but not all the goodies, just some but its offered as a low cost go fast alternative that everyone will clamour for.

well thats my thought..
see how right I am in a year from now since the Daytona 500 is right around the corner..
if true I said it before I read it
Old Feb 16, 2006 | 11:42 AM
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Re: Show Car to Indy?

Originally Posted by Caps94ZODG
anyone miss the part of the Stealth being a stretched eclpise??
It was a 3000GT not an eclipse..
I was about to say the same thing. The Stealth/3000GT are completely dif cars from the DSMs

The "American" Eclipse was the Eagle Talon or the Plymouth Laser (in 1st gen form only)
Old Feb 16, 2006 | 01:56 PM
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Re: Show Car to Indy?

Well, if we’re going to pile on Guy, I would disagree with his statement that there was no ChryCo vehicle that could have been used as the Indy 500 Pace Car in 1991. From the Shelby Dodge website http://www.xmission.com/~dempsey/ (and with honorable mention to the 1991 Dodge Daytona C/S-Competition Option Code AGS):

“In 1991 Dodge released the Spirit R/T. This car was a completely in-house product; in other words there was very little (if any at all) Shelby influence on this model. The R/T was created mainly as a competitor to the Ford Taurus SHO which was more or less alone in its class of $20,000 15.1-second ET sports sedans.
The R/T was based on the Spirit ES Turbo. Not surprisingly, the interior is identical to the ES. The suspension had been beefed up and modified somewhat. The alignment was altered, spring rates were raised, tighter shocks were installed, and some steering components were redesigned as well. Four-wheel disc brakes were standard equipment. The car wore 15-inch aluminum "snowflake" wheels which were wrapped in 205/60VR-15 Michelin XGT V4 tires. On red cars, the wheel inserts were painted red as well; the wheels were either white or unpainted on white R/Ts.

Underhood, as always, is where the biggest changes were made. The engine is a 16-valve intercooled 2.2 liter, known as the Turbo III. The head was jointly designed by Lotus and was Chrysler's first four valve configuration. The bottom end is carried over from the 'true' Turbo II, but balance shafts were added to reduce buzziness and shakes. Maximum boost was set at 11 psi. The result of this hardware is a smooth 224 hp at 6000 and 217 lb-ft at 2800. Redline is set at 6500 with a fuel cutoff at 6700. The engine was backed by a 5-speed which was redesigned for increased smoothness; an automatic was not offered.

With all this hardware underhood the R/T was certainly a surprise at the stoplights. Weighing in at just over 3150 pounds, the R/T could scorch from 0 to 60 in 5.8 seconds. The quarter mile flashed by in 14.5 seconds at 97 mph; top speed was 141. This performance gave Dodge some impressive bragging rights!”


I know Guy loves late ‘80’s early 90’s performance cars, I wonder if he ever crossed paths with a Spirit R/T while he was in his T-Bird SC back in the day!

A couple of Chevy tidbits, the 1990 Beretta Pace Car was a pre-production Convertible Beretta that was intended for retail sale but canceled at the last minute. And, if I remember correctly, the 1999 Pace Car was a pre-production 2000 Monte Carlo, so Chevy has a track record of using pre-production cars at Indy!
Old Feb 16, 2006 | 04:00 PM
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Re: Show Car to Indy?

Originally Posted by LXDTS
I was about to say the same thing. The Stealth/3000GT are completely dif cars from the DSMs

The "American" Eclipse was the Eagle Talon or the Plymouth Laser (in 1st gen form only)
Nope. When Mistsubishi set out to design that generation of GTO, they took the Eclipse platform as the basis and enlarged and modified it to accept a new powerplant and all the other goodies that were available on the GTO/3000GT/Stealth such as rear wheel steering, active aero, etc.

So the Stealth was in a way a stretched Eclipse. Just like the first Camaro was a modified Nova
Old Feb 16, 2006 | 07:26 PM
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Re: Show Car to Indy?

so it shares the same platform..

thats like saying the FOX stang is basically a LTD cus it shares the same platform...??

yes the 3000GT comes from the eclipes, sure..but to say the Stealth is from the Eclipse platform..nahh..its more along the lines of it is on the same stretch platform as the 3000GT that comes from the eclipse.



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