Rare Rides: A 1991 Ford F-150, Pace Truck and PPG

In what is assuredly the most Nineties looking Rare Ride to date, today’s Ford F-150 wears its decade loud and proud. Let’s find out more about this one-off pace car.

This series has ventured into pace cars before, with an Oldsmobile Bravada and Cadillac Allante, both of which served at the Indianapolis 500. The pace vehicle we have here did its job at the PPG IndyCar World Series.

The truck started off as an eighth generation F-150, the one produced for model years 1987 to 1991. The front end wears cues from a ninth-gen model, which went on sale around the time the pace truck was first used. Understandably, the special pace car was built to look more like the new F-150 than the one on its death bed.

In charge of the special build were Jack Roush and McLaren Performance Technologies. They called this truck the Boss Sport, and went all-out with their customization. First to go was the standard engine, replaced by a 500-horsepower Roush-tuned 5.0. The single exhaust was reworked into a dual system, with some special mufflers to turn up the volume. Shifting all those horses was a race-prepped four-speed automatic. Part of the performance improvement included brakes: four water-cooled discs to be more specific. Wheels were custom, and provided by AZE. Unique to the singular pace truck were the side body panels, bumpers, headlamps, grille, and the hood. At the back a tonneau cover had cutouts for the two jump seats added to the bed, BRAT style.

The truck is also a four-door, as the bed has doors either side for the rear passengers which contain integrated steps. It looks as though closing the rear side doors is a two-person affair. Between the cabin and bed is an integrated, arching roll bar to protect the scalps of those rear passengers in a rollover event. Other niceties include some strobe lights, a roof light bar, and a fire suppression system for track usage. The rear license plate flips down, should the truck’s plate need shown to police.

The inside is decidedly more luxurious than the F-150 in those days, with nicely bolstered leather buckets borrowed from a Taurus SHO. Door panels were also recovered, and a poorly finished center console added. Purple and blue trim match the exterior, and remind those up front they’re not in a regular work truck.

PPG debuted the pace truck for races in 1991, when it was actually painted white, red, and purple. After 1992, they ran the truck for the ’93 and ’94 seasons with the current purple, yellow, and green scheme before it was retired.

The estimated build cost circa 1991 was $250,000, which makes the pace truck’s current ask of $31,995 seem like a complete bargain.

[Images: seller]