Here in Indiana, the Indianapolis 500 mile race has been a big thing for a long time. My favorite Indy 500 subject has long been the pace cars. Every year, one car was chosen to be the pace car for the race, used in leading the thirty three cars in their flying start, and during yellow-flag caution laps.
Although Oldsmobile paced the race several times, the big Ninety Eight got the honor only once – in 1960. Retired racer Sam Hanks drove the 1960 car (as well as several others in those years). The 1960 model was a good looking car that made a great pace car. I wonder if inter-divisional rivalry cause Olds to go after the honor the year immediately following 1959, when Buick had the job for its new flagship, the Electra 225. And, a fun fact of the day: the 1960 Oldsmobile pace car was the last one delivered as a showroom stock car from a dealer. Every pace car since was specially prepared, in one way or another.
If you had to choose one of these two 1959-60 GM C body Pace Cars, which would be your choice?
Olds. Better styling. But the Buick is OK too.
Definitely the Olds. Cleaner styling overall plus I have never really liked canted headlights on any car
I pretty much always prefer a Buick over an Olds, and this is no exception. Plus I’ve always loved the 59 Buick, and really don’t like the treatment behind the rear wheel well on the Olds, looks like it is dragging a plow.
The Buick!! My favorite pace car though,is the 1968 Ford Torino GT.
’59 Buick, no question about it. My favorite Space Age car. I have a vivid childhood memory of the first time I saw it, in red, spread across two pages of Motor Trend.
What car would you choose for this year’s Classic? I nominate the Tesla Roadster.
I have to go with the Olds. The canted headlights, front and rear “fins” and side profile of the 59 Buick are a turnoff..
Gotta go with the Oldsmobile. A Rocket V8 and an old-school Hydra-Matic beats a Nailhead/Dynaflow every time. Plus, you get the greatest deep-dish steering wheel of all time! Althought, the Buick has an undeniably sinister kind of appeal.
For the Pace duty? The Buick because it’s so flamboyant. For actual ownership, The Olds for it’s virtues (the forementioned Rocket V8 and Hydramatic) plus I love the rear styling of the 1960 Olds, although the face, to me, actually looks close to being as angry as the 1959/60 Buicks. I actually prefer the 1959 Olds face over the ’60.
I’ll take the Buick. Coming or going, a 59 Buick looks evil and is one of my favorite finned cars. The 60 Olds does nothing for me.
Oldsmobile (suckas hate my 98.)
I’d take the Olds. Better looking, and with a better drivetrain, too.
The Buick looks the best the rear1/4 of the Plds is ridiculous did they run out of ideas or time to make it look good performance isnt an issue as its only a big circle at moderate velocity.
I can’t decide!
I was just looking at the complete list of Indy 500 pace cars and wondering how they’re chosen? The choices in some years seem strange to me. Certainly the manufacturer has to agree to provide the vehicles, but I would assume that more than one manufacturer submits a proposal most years and the Indy officials have to decide between them. Of course, a GM vehicle has paced Indy every year since 1997, so maybe Chrysler and Ford stopped caring? Even before that, there would be GM vehicles for 5+ years before a Ford or Chrysler vehicle was used. Did the different GM divisions used to submit their own competing proposals?
I dont know how they are selected either, there are some strange choices, Olds used to own this category in the 70’s, they paced the race in 1970, 1972, 1974 and 1977. GM cars paced through the 70’s with the exception being a Dodge Challenger in 1971 and the new Fox Mustang Turbo in 1979.
I’ll take the Buick, Delta wings add stability at high speeds!
Maybe the first requirement was that the pace cars can get out of the way of the Indy cars when they really open up. That may have been difficult in the malaise era ’73-’82. Beyond that, probably money changing hands…
I would like to do more of a piece on these in the future. When a manufacturer gets the honor of the pace car, it is quite an undertaking. They also traditionally supplied multiple replicas (as many as 50) that are called “official cars” that were for the use of the drivers or their teams. Every May I see some of the cars with all of the decals out and about from various years. But there was only one actual pace car per year, which is always the most valuable in later years.
Also, the supplier of the pace car would also supply the safety vehicles, usually a fleet of trucks and/or vans for track inspections and all around utility.
So, to supply a pace car involved considerable expense. It is my understanding that manufacturers who had some sort of milestone or new model would get dibs, and the race officials would try to spread the honor around. In truth, I think that in recent years, GM has been the only one really chasing the gig. This will be interesting to watch in coming years.
In this competition, I’ll choose the Olds. My real preference would be the 1960 Pontiac. I just love the styling of that car.
59 Buick for me, one of my favourite land yachts
Pick a C-body pace car? 🙂
YouDaMan! 🙂
Or maybe . . .
Box C: Other
And this would be it!
If the choice was opened-up to any Indy pace car, I’d certainly consider the ’56 DeSoto. That’s one case where I’m surprised Chrysler didn’t give them a ’56 300B though. The 300 was their fullsize performance car, and had just been introduced a year prior.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3656/3461411840_ba92514e08_z.jpg
Never knew about the ’56 and ’63 cars – thanks!
Of the 2 choices, I’d take the Olds. But that ’63 300J is sharp!
Tough call. I like the ’59 Buick, but, mechanically and from a performance standpoint, gotta go Olds. Wedges and four-speed HydraMatic over Nailhead and two speed twin or triple turbine Dynaflow.
My dad inherited his grandmother’s 1958 Olds 88 around 1962. I drove it a few times when I learned to drive. What a beast. I found it very difficult to maneuver because I could not see the corners, and I am almost 6 feet. I told my brother that it was like driving a mushroom.
Of the two…Olds. For styling; and (not knowing much about either of that year) comfort in the engineering.
I used to see an Olds of that year a lot. My childhood home was across the street from the city park; and on summer weekends they’d have a truck there to take grass clippings and brush from homeowners. I remember one badly-rusted Olds of that vintage, hauling three garbage cans every Saturday afternoon…the rear panels behind the wheels had rusted off on three sides; and those big metal panels were just flapping in the breeze.
Funny the stuff you remember about being a little kid.