PPG pace car geeks , cool stroy for ya.

[GT350R]

I figured the "geek's" would like this one. Most will find it boring.

A story popped up on a local Mustang board that I thought you might like.

The car looks Capri and SVO based in design, so I thought it ok for this board.

http://www.buckeyestangs.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15518

[82mustang]

says you need to be registered to view...can you copy and paste?

[02pnygt]

hopefully this works. it is a cool story.

edit: sorry the pics didn't copy. gave it a shot. added pics in next post.

I've had these rims for about 10 years and have not been able to find out anything about them. I recently found a picture of the car they are from which explains they are even more rare than I thought. That's the summary, read on for the long version lol...









These are 2-piece wheels, 16" staggered.
They are 4.5" bolt pattern, originally for a ford mustang. There is no manufacturer information anywhere on the wheel or on the inside. The front rims had center caps with a ford emblem that was glued on by hand, not manufactured. I still have the centercaps too.

Long story of how I got them... My dad worked for PPG most of his life. PPG makes good automotive paint, and in the 80's they built a Pace Car team. He was in sales back then and worked his way up, but was never directly involved with the Pace Car team- but he knew them all since he was a car guy (like I am). So he went to a lot of Indy Car races and I went along once in a while. I was probably 10 when I started going to the Cleveland Grand Prix with him every year. One year when I was about 16, I went to Mid OH with him and rode in the teal corvette, and another vette that isn't in the pics (they were always getting new cars- pics were from the 80's) Well for some reason a few years later PPG was ending the whole program, and liquidating everything. They sold off all of the big stuff (cars, trailers) and had a warehouse left of parts at the Strongsville OH location where he worked. They had a silent auction for all the employees, before they sold the rest. I was probably 19 at the time, and my dad took me up there and I bid on 5-6 sets of wheels, and a set of corvette seats. Well later I found out that I won this set of wheels, and 2 other sets (17" OZ racing & 16" BBS which I sold not too long after) The "mystery wheels" were $52, the OZ's were about $70 and the BBS were $60) The ones in the pics had "mustang" written on the tires, but after getting them I found that the front wheels didn't clear the stock brakes on a 94+ 5 lug mustang. So they may have been used on an earlier one with 5 lug conversion.
The wheels sat in the basement because I didn't know what they fit to sell them.
A couple of years after I bought the wheels, my dad passed away. If I had cared about finding out what these wheels were back then, he could have probably gave me a # of someone who knew all about the car they were from. But I was in college at the time and it was the last thing on my mind. I emailed wheel companies like Centerline, and took a wheel to wheel shops and nobody knew. Now 8+ years later, I still have these wheels. I was going through some stuff since I'm moving this year and I found a book from 1988 that had a few pages about PPG Pace Cars. One of them was an early 80's mustang with my wheels on it.




(keep in mind this was the early 80's, Robo Cop was still cool then)
Each one of these Pace Cars was one of a kind built for show and go. See in the caption that the Mustang cost $250k to build- in early 80's money. So I have some very rare, if not one of a kind rims.

I finally have documentation of what they are from, but still cannot figure out what kind of rims they are, or what they might be worth. They are 16" staggered with 225/50ZR16 up front and 255/50ZR16 slightly stretched on the huge rear wheels.

I had searched the internet a few years back with no results... but the internet has come a long way!
I remember my dad telling me that they parted out or destroyed a lot of the cars since they were never street legal, but I've seen some of the other PPG cars still in tact from searching in the past.
But I was just recently searching and it looks like the car still exists!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79y4weEkSe8

[02pnygt]

here are a couple pics of the wheels.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r212/02pnygt/ebay%20items/rare2.jpg

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r212/02pnygt/ebay%20items/rare.jpg

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r212/02pnygt/ebay%20items/rare3.jpg

[fordguy]

the centers kind of remind me of the tbird/cougar trx wheels.

[lilbush]

he should get a hold of jack roush to see if he want to buy them for the car.

[GT350R]

Thanks 02pony!!

I would lend them to Rousch. All I would ask in return is invitations to cool events :)

[429bigblock]

Thats a pretty cool story. This pace definatly looks different from that other '80 pace thats rotting away under that tarp.

[Mr. Pink]

Neato.. Looks like a solid centerline outlaw mag that had the slots machined into it.

[dburdyshaw]

Luv to have those wheels!