Festval car questions

[Dominic]

How many are left? I heard there was not too many left? What do the black numbers behind the liscense plate mean exactly? What else should i look for in a rare festival car besides the numbers behind the rear plate? My car is #16 festival car, it was sold to a GM executive then to someone in Oregon and then it went to someone in California which we purchased it from. It has #36 behind the rear plate. Was this a sequence number? or possibly a line up number? Any information would be great!

[Jan Larsson]

Originally Posted by Dominic

How many are left? I heard there was not too many left? What do the black numbers behind the liscense plate mean exactly? What else should i look for in a rare festival car besides the numbers behind the rear plate? My car is #16 festival car, it was sold to a GM executive then to someone in Oregon and then it went to someone in California which we purchased it from. It has #36 behind the rear plate. Was this a sequence number? or possibly a line up number? Any information would be great!

The number behind the rear license plate was just the sequence number used by Indy; this is the number the license plate had during the track days .... depending on the number (no 1 -3 where the actuall pace cars used) the cars had different duties on the track during the event ... I got the list somewhere that gives you the breakdowns.

The cars also got (or where supossed to get) a rare key ring with a special logo like the pit badges used that year ... got photos of it somewhere but never come across one unfortunatly ... also any documentation that came with the car from Indy would be cool.

As for numbers of cars left that is very hard to say ... but maybe 75% of the cars used at Indy are left??

[Jan Larsson]

This is the info I got many years ago from the gentleman at Indy responsible for the numbering and plating of the pace cars, parade cars and support vehicles for the 1989 event ....

This is what he sent me:

All of this information is from the 1989 Indianapolis 500 Pace Car program file. As all of you already know the Turbo Trans was the "Official Pace Car" that year with GMC being the "Official Truck"

As we do this every year all of the cars that are going to be used during the months from March until May for this event are assigned a number. All cars receive this on the front windshield down low by the VIN number with the trucks and vans to have them applied to both the front and rear glass. The plate that is issued matches this number. The basic guide is that all of the "Official Pace Cars" that are used by the Speedway are numbered 1-80. These are then broken down again and the 500 Festival Committee then gets 34 cars with the remainder to be kept and issued by the Speedway. The Press cars are then numbered 81-100 and the last are usually Administrative units.
Vehicles numbered in the high 200 are normally support units or as they have been issuing Teams vehicles and that is why you see such a high number. We do have the BMV press plates up to 300 to 350 as sometimes the manufactures usually send more in after the first group arrives and is processed.

I hope this explains how the plating process works and here are the numbers from 1989 and there assignment.

Cars plated 1, 2, 3, and then from the numbers 53-78 were used by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and these are what we call Track Cars. Cars numbered 4 through 40 were issued to the 500 Festival Committee (now it is called Indy Festivals) All of the cars from 41-51 were used for the parade and on race day for the drivers parade around the track.
Units numbered 79 through 83 were GMC Safari vans with 84 being a Bonneville SSE.
Cars then numbered 85 through 156 were replicas and some of these had press assignments. The GMC Safari vans then were numbered 157-161 for Pontiac Administrative use. Cars numbered 162-171 were Bonneville SSE models and were for Admin usages with 172-206 being Sunfire Convertibles and these were used for the parade and press and Admin and others during the month of May.

Here is the total recap of the different models that were used:

500 Festival Committee

50 Trans Am replicas

Indianapolis Motor Speedway

3 Actual Trans Am Pace Cars
28 Trans Am Replicas
5 Safari Wagons
10 Bonneville SSE
1 Bonneville LE

Support and Courtesy Vehicles

72 Trans Am Replicas
35 Sunbird Convertibles
10 Bonneville SSE
5 Safari Wagons

Total 219 units

RECAP

3 ACTUAL TRANS AM PACE CARS
150 PACE CARS REPLICAS
35 SUNBIRD CONVERTIBLES
10 SAFARI WAGONS
10 BONNEVILLE SSE
1 BONNEVILLE LE

[Dominic]

Jan,

Thank you so much for this information, I am now more in tune with what the car is about.

Dominic.

[Metal]

Jan
I have an 1989 Indy plate numbed 215 what would that have been on? That email says they only went up to 206? (I paid a ton for it on ebay years ago, I hope it's not a repro)
Thanks
Jim

[Jan Larsson]

I looked at this in the past and as you point out Jim the highest numbered plate mentiond is 206 however the total number of cars used he listed as 219 ....

So clearly the 215 plate you have was not used on any of the pace car replicas ... maybe on a high numbered support vehicle (Sunfire?). But I know talking to the guy he said they did not really know how many cars in total Pontiac would send them so they did order plates numbered up to I beleive 300 meaning a number of them where never used at all on any of the 219 (or 206) vehicles.

I got plate 131 or 132 can't remember at the moment. These do go for big $$$, I beleive I paid $100 for mine a number of years back.

[Metal]

Sunfires came out in 1995 so I assume the 89's he's talking about were Sunbirds. I had an 89 Sunbird too so I guess my plate is from one of them.

PS I plan on installing that oil cooler any day now