Ford assembled approximately 225 Pace Car Mustangs (35 Convertibles and about 190 Hardtops) that found their way to the consuming public.
The convertibles were sold to dealers after the race and the hardtops were distributed to winners of the “Checkered Flag” and “Green Flag” contest. This was a special competition between dealerships in order to distribute the planned pace car replicas to be released for sale to the public.
The competition consisted of “Checkered Flag” and “Green Flag” contests that were based on the sales performance of the dealerships prior to the April 17, 1964 introduction of the Mustang.
The top five performers in each district would receive a pace car replica for free, or at a significant discount, based on their final standings in the sales contest. With 36 districts this added up to 180 replicas, however, because of dealership ties and strong performances, approximately 10 extra replicas were made, bringing the total to an estimated 190.
Representatives from the 105 winning dealerships were invited to Dearborn for a special celebration, where the keys to their replicas were handed over by Mr. Lee Iacocca himself.
Interesting fact with regards to the replica cars was the lack of outside mirrors. Standard procedure at the time was for cars to be delivered to the dealerships with the outside mirrors placed loose inside the car. When the car was prepped by the dealership the mirrors were then installed. However, the pace car replicas were not delivered the same way as regular Mustangs… the Checkered Flag cars were retrieved by the winning dealers from Dearborn, and the Green Flag cars were retrieved from the District Sales Office by the dealer. This meant that these cars did not end up with an outside mirror.
One, was given to A.J. Foyt, the winner of the race, and shortly there after destroyed in a accident. The second one was given to Sebring Florida race track for official use, and remained there until 1992.
I'm not a Jay Leno fan, but I watched this a couple of nights ago, and it was really interesting and Leno didn't come off as an arrogant dick. Probably because he was talking to, if I recall correctly, Henry Ford the second's nephew.
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