FAQs

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1. What is a Festival Car?
2. What is a Brass Hat Car?
3. What is a C-1 or O-1 car?
4. How many Pace cars were used at Indy in 67?

What is a Festival Car?   

Festival cars, not to be confused with Festival Paint or Finish is one of the 81 or so 67 RS/SS Convertibles used during the months of April and May by officers of the Speedway, Festival  Committee members, members of the press, Etc.  These cars can be broken down into 4 major groups:  First group, 43 Camaros, all made 03C. Assigned to Festival 500 Committee Members delivered on April 1, 1967. Second group, 2 Camaro Pace cars, special prepared and tested cars. Third group, 10 Speed way Vehicles believed to all be made 04A, assigned to Speedway Officers, Directors and Management to be delivered by April 10, 1967. Fourth Group: 25 Brass Hat Cars, build date ranging from 04A through 05A. Assigned to members of the press, Upper management of Chevrolet, Goodyear and Firestone Tires, Mayor, Police Chief, ETC. All indirect associates of Speedway and Festival 500 Committee members. Delivery dates starting by April 10 and April 15, of 1967.  Side note: After reviewing a number of photographs of the this amazing event of 1967, a special mention must be made of the undetermined amount of White Camaro coupes and at least one RS Convertible

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What is a Brass Hat Car? 

According to the 1967 Pace car Activity Book, 40 vehicles were to be made available for this group, 25 were to be Camaros. Seven cars were made available to Public Relations otherwise known as Pool Cars. The remaining 18 cars and to whom they may have been assigned to are still a mystery but after reviewing Pace Car Assignment sheets for 4 other years we are quite certain that the list may have looked something like the following; Assignments to members of the press, Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis News, UPI, AP, WFBTV, WIBC, WISH,  WTTV: Upper members of management at General Motors, Chevrolet division, upper management at Firestone, Goodyear, USAC,  Governor of  Indiana, Lt. Governor of Indiana, Mayor of Indianapolis, Police Chief and Sheriff of Indianapolis. The Brass Hat group of cars is also where you would expect to see most of the variations in their options. The three other groups, outside of their motors, were almost identical cars.

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What is a C-1 or O-1 car?

For a starting point, the simple answer is that these codes represent the two codes that you would expect to find on a 1967 Pace car. Ermine White paint with White Top ( C 1 ) can be found on both Van Nuys Cars and Norwood Cars. To this date, cars that carry C 1 have not been documented as being involved in any Festival 500 activities.  The 01 code is not quite that simple. There is still no exact, documented answer for what the SPECIAL PAINT code is representing when we refer to the 1967 Pace Car. What we all have agreed on is that it is the only code found on document 1967 Festival cars. Here are a couple of theories that some feel the code represents. The most popular is a "Show Finish" which ranges from a special clear coat to an extra polishing or Buffing. The other, which could possibly be the easiest to understand is an alternate white paint that GM has available to other motor divisions such as Pontiac or Oldsmobile.  If the SPECIAL PAINT code "O" came up on any other car than a 1967 Pace car, an alternate color was used

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Revised: 09/04/07