Corvette Model Gallery
1978
The year was a memorable one for Corvette. It had a
significant birthday, led America’s premier race and had its
first major revision in several years. All cars carried the 25th
Anniversary badge in the usual tail and nose locations replacing
for one year only the crossed flags logo introduced in ‘77.
But only by ticking RPO code B2Z could you have a real birthday
car. The Anniversary scheme consisted of two tone silver, silver
over dark silver divided by a silver pin tape stripe. One third
of all cars wore this one year scheme.
The role of the Indy 500 Pace Car was to lead the racers around
the famed oval on their parade lap but the selected model also
provided cars for many other activities associated with the May
weekend classic. While GM was no stranger to this role, this was
the first time for Corvette. For the event they prepared a
special black or silver paint scheme with a silver interior. Pace
Cars also differed by having thinner seat backs, front air dams
and rear spoiler. Chevy anticipating the popularity of the race
prepared 6,502 Pace Car replicas for sale to the public. Even
with its additional option price of thirteen thousand the
replicas sold quickly.
Changes to all Corvettes included a new fastback roof to finally
provide much needed interior luggage room and optional tinted
roof panels. The latter had been announced for ‘77 but
delayed. The biggest changes came inside with a new dash, real
glove box, new arm rests and interior pulls.
Two of the most unusual Corvettes to ever appear were revealed in
‘78. California Custom Coach created the first of what they
hoped would be many four seat four door Corvettes. While the car
was well built with all the amenities, the required stretch did
little for the sleek looks of the Corvette. Only a few were ever
built, one of which remains with the Mid America collection. A
quite unattractive custom was created for the movie
‘Corvette Summer’, the story of a young man who
attempts to retrieve a stolen customized car built in his high
school auto body class. For the movie’s premiere a ‘78
Pace Car replica was raffled off and invited Corvette owners
created a Guinness Record parade of between 5000-7000 Corvettes.
Unfortunately the quality of the movie did not live up to the
premiere. Despite the publicity of the Anniversary and the Indy
500 Pace Car sales for 1978 actually dropped by over twenty-four
hundred cars, the first sales drop in eight years.
The model:
Using the "What if" philosophy, Mike created this phantom '78 convertible in 1/8 scale. This is not far-fetched, as many late convertibles (73's,74's ) were updated in the late 70's and early 80's.
The blue '78 convertible was actually my first experiment with turning coupes into convertibles. I bought a built but unpainted '78 for the conversion. That way, if it didn't turn out well, I didn't have to use a perfectly good kit to do it! I thought it would make a nice "what if" car. It is painted Testors True Blue Pearl.
If you would like to contact Mike on this model his e-mail address is: Perhach@keynet.net
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Page updated 10/10/00