The 1969 Indy Pace Car was one of the most esthetic pace cars ever built.
The 1969 Camaro was picked as the Official Pace Car for the 1969 Indianapolis 500 and Official Car of the ‘500’ Festival. This was the second time in three years for Camaro since it had also been chosen as the 1967 Pace Car.
The 1969 pace cars were designed to be visible: Dover White RS/SS convertibles with Hugger Orange Z28 style stripes and orange houndstooth cloth seats. All were equipped with the recently released fresh air hood (aka: cowl hood).
In February of 1967,the pace car was announced to the media at a press conference in Indianapolis.The announcement was aided by a Display vehicle that showed off the pace car colors.
By providing the actual pace car, a backup pace car, a pace car replica (with air conditioning, power top, and show car finish) to be presented to the winner of the race, Chevrolet had a chance to show it's support of the race.
A fleet of courtesy vehicles included an additional 130 pace car replicas, 16 Impala station wagons, 18 pickups, two Suburbans, and one van, rounded out the support team of vehicles that Chevrolet provided.
The two pacers and the winner's car are believed to be in the front row and the Festival cars (identified by the Festival sticker on the rear quarter panel) are lined up behind them. One of these cars (#34, 9N609349) and a matched set of luggage were then presented to the Festival Queen.
Forty-three pace car replicas, all SS350 automatics, were provided to the “500” Festival Committee for use in the Festival Parade and other events. The two cars built to actually pace the race, the pace car and the backup car, were both ordered with the L89 aluminum head 375 hp 396 engines, automatic transmissions, power steering, sport-styled steering wheels, consoles, gauges, and AM radios.
The pace cars were driven by Jim Rathmann, winner of the 1960 Indy 500. Both pace cars were used to pace the race. The #1 car was used for the initial pace lap. The #2 car was used when the pace lap was rerun due to an accident. Both cars still survive.
The pace car convertibles had a sibling! It was a well kept secret for a number of years. . Paperwork documenting why the cars were made has not been found, but they were sold in the Southwest area of TX, OK, NM, LA, and AZ (and at least two Z10's were sold new in western TN).
There were a limited number of RS/SS coupes built via the option code Z10 that received the pace car style orange Z28 striping, essentially coupe versions of the pace car.
Most Z10’s have the L48 350/300 hp engine, but the 396 engines were optional. Most of the cars that did have the 396 were equipped with the L35 325hp engine, though there were a few L78 396/375 hp Z10’s. The 3-speed manual transmission was the base transmission, but, like most SS cars, most Z10's were optioned with an automatic or a 4-speed manual.
About half of the known Z10’s are manual and half are automatics. The Z10 was available with any other 69 Camaro option. A large percentage of Z10’s have air conditioning and several cars with vinyl tops have been found.
Five different interiors have been observed in Z10's. Approximately half of the cars received the ivory standard (code 727) interior. The other four interiors seen in Z10 cars are: black standard (711), black deluxe (712), black houndstooth (713), and ivory houndstooth (729).
There's no evidence that any Z10’s were built with the orange houndstooth interior found in the pace cars. The Z10’s were built at Norwood and Z10 was stamped on the cowl tag. All the cars were built between the third week of April (04C) and the first week of May (05A). No Los Angeles-built Z10's have ever been found and since LA was in the midst of a strike when most Z10's were built, it's very doubtful any were made there.
All Z10's are RS/SS’s, painted Dover white (code 50) with white rocker panels. SS396 cars had white tailpanels. Required options for the Z10 package were D80 spoilers, ZJ7 rally wheels, ZL2 special ducted hood, Z22 Rally Sport, and Z27 Super Sport.
Needles to say these pace cars are highly collectible items.
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