I've heard some people saying how the 1998 Daytona Pace Cars were done at the Kansas City Plant. That all 1500 Pace Cars were done back to back from 1 to 1500 overnight while the regular production line was shut down. I was told this was also done because Meduim Gluf Blue Metallic was NOT a regular exterior paint option that year, so the paint booth mixed enough to do the 1500 produced. I was also told the staging yard come up short on about plus/ minus 300 bodies that night and they had to bring in 300 or so bodies with factory sunroofs, making the factory sunroof equipped 1998 Daytona's a rare piece.


So if the Kansas City plant did them all back to back the serial numbers should match the VIN number by the same number of units?

Example.. We now have 2 members on GPONA with 1998 Pace Cars..

#1064 & #1077 very close in the production seq.

#1064 VIN is #306934 1064 - 1077 = 13 units

if the cars were produced back to back and car # 1064 VIN SEQ number is 306934, then Car # 1077 should be 13 units AFTER 306934 or 306947... BUT #1077 is 307694 or 760 units AFTER #1064...... This does not add up......

Can anyone explain this?

I'm thinking that perhaps the dash plaques were not installed in the same order as the production units .. 760 falls within 1500.... Let's hope none of the VIN number differences ectend past 1500... Or I can throw that theory out the window as well....

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Mr. Dave
1989 Turbo Grand Prix Clone
2000 Daytona 500 Pace Car #1134
1997 Cadillac Seville STS

I don't think there is any way they were all produced the same day/night.

My driver's door sticker has a date listed of 04/98... I know they were not all produced that late in the production year.

My vote goes to "Rumor".

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mild To WILD
'02 GP GT (200hp)
'07 GP GXP (300+hp)
'98 GP GTP Daytona (600+hp) - IC'd T67

Yes they were all painted in one night/shift The reason they are not in sequence is they were built and stored in various lots around Kansas City. When they were brought to be painted they just got in line and a driver might have a car from a close lot and the next one from a far lot. There were not brought in in any order so the build date and ser# are not in sequence. I was told this by a group of the painters at GPG 99 when we were at the factory tour that year. They were looking at my car and said they remembered the cars because most of the shift assembly people were let off that night/shift so they could get them all painted. They also said that toward the end management found that some of the lot counts were not exact and they were going to be short.

Isn't that where they took the Factory sunroofed cars and had them painted MGBM and threw them into the batch to complete the 1500 needed

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Mr. Dave
1989 Turbo Grand Prix Clone
2000 Daytona 500 Pace Car #1134
1997 Cadillac Seville STS

You know now that I think about this It's BS The cars we watched were being assembled all ready painted. If they stored them and then painted them then all the cars would have a different color under the blue and I don't think any do. O'well they are all blue Mabe they painted them and then assembled the next shift but you would think the vin's should be close.

Yes.. you and I know they paint the parts BEFORE assembly... ummmmm

Well, like I said before... If they ran all 1500 off that assemby line in ONE night, the VIN #'s get assigned to the cars at the start of the assembly by means of a BARCODE. that barcoded VIN is followed all thru the line to the end . So I'm thinking all 1500 Pace car VIN #'s should be within "1500" of one another...

I guess at this point, A good question to ask would be at what point in the assembly did the console badgeS get put on?

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Mr. Dave
1989 Turbo Grand Prix Clone
2000 Daytona 500 Pace Car #1134
1997 Cadillac Seville STS

I was wodering also how they could be driven from lots to be painted. Paint would need to come before assembly.

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mild To WILD
'02 GP GT (200hp)
'07 GP GXP (300+hp)
'98 GP GTP Daytona (600+hp) - IC'd T67

I think what happened is that they had to have 1500 sunroof less Grand Prix unibodys ready the night they produced the '98 Daytonas.. So they had assembled unibodys from various warehouses trucked to the plant.
The hoods, trunks, and doors were probably painted at a different places along the assembly line. The unibodys get painted and baked before all major components are attached....This leads me to believe they were produced in one night back to back.... If a typical assembly line can kick out 6 cars a minute at full speed, it did not take long to produce 1500.

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Mr. Dave
1989 Turbo Grand Prix Clone
2000 Daytona 500 Pace Car #1134
1997 Cadillac Seville STS

i thought it was only 200 had the sunroof. umm now its 3 members have daytona editions. =)

200? Where did you hear that number from? ...
Truth is I don't think anyone knows for sure exactly how many '98 Daytonas came from the factory with sunroof installed. but I would think it was around 200-300 units.

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Mr. Dave
1989 Turbo Grand Prix Clone
2000 Daytona 500 Pace Car #1134
1997 Cadillac Seville STS

My 1998 Daytona has the factory sunroof.

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2000 Black GTP, Heavily Modded, 12.7 @ 108
1999 White GTP, Stock With 20's, 14.7 @ 93 <-- R.I.P. I miss you!
1998 Blue GTP Daytona
1996 GMC Sierra, 35's only thing stock is the rearview mirror

You have pics of your Daytona?

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Mr. Dave
1989 Turbo Grand Prix Clone
2000 Daytona 500 Pace Car #1134
1997 Cadillac Seville STS

I dont have pics yet. I'm waiting until she gets a nice coat of wax before I take some pics. I'll be a few days before I get that done because I am still moving a bit slow.

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2000 Black GTP, Heavily Modded, 12.7 @ 108
1999 White GTP, Stock With 20's, 14.7 @ 93 <-- R.I.P. I miss you!
1998 Blue GTP Daytona
1996 GMC Sierra, 35's only thing stock is the rearview mirror

Ok, first i'll tell you that I work for a car manufacturing plant. Now, obviously GM and our plant probably make cars a little different.

As for the VIN #'s, I know at our plant, the VIN's should go in order as long as we are making the same model and lot. The VIN's are printed on the dash when they are in weld shop usually right at the beginning. So I would think the Pace Cars should have been made in sequence to the VIN if they were made in the SAME LOT. Again, GM might do things differently. Some things might be, they made their cars in different lots. They might have messed up on a couple bodies and had to scrap them. Or they just number differently.

As for 1500 cars made in a day, highly doubtful. We have a new plant so things are running a little slower, but I worked in a plant in Ohio where they are running full production. They could only bang out 500 cars in an eight hour shift. We only run 2 shifts (2 hours in between shifts), so at most your looking at 1000 cars. Now, they could have 3 shifts to your get 1500 but I kinda doubt it only because robots WILL fail and you WILL have downtime. We only have 2 shifts (assembly, weld; other depts are 3 shifts because they make service parts) because, if shift 1 can't make production in their eight hours they have a 2 hour cusion til the next shift starts. Therefore, they could have made all the cars in one lot, but not a whole day unless they have a crazy amount of associates.

Now to a paint issue. I work in the weld department in the area where doors, trunks, and hoods are made. Those items are made for a specific VIN #. So once we make them, they are sent over to another line where they are put on the car. On that same line, is where all the steel/metal parts are put on the car before they are shipped off to paint, we call these "White Bodies". In paint, the whole car gets baked and painted with all doors/trunks/hoods on the car. Once the whole paint process is complete the doors are now taken off the car and sent to another line where all "your guts" (windows, harnesses, panels) to a door are installed. These doors HAVE TO go back on the SAME car that they were painted with. **Mainly because the same color paints should be the same exact color but some might have a slight difference between colors in a different lot, thats why they want to the same doors on the same cars (Unless there is a deform they will have to paint another door and try to get the EXACT color of the car and apply it to the ne door)**

The rest of the car goes threw assembly (car already painted). Then to final body where last quality checks are made. Then Test Drive. Shipped to dealers and into your driveway/garage.

That's a manufacturing plant in a nut-shell.

I vote for rumor also...
/fingers hurt, lol

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this is a very very interesting read

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you know reading this is a good point...but sadly im 96% positive they made a few a month by the door badges with the dates. anyway, still upsets me idk my cars number

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Behold the majestic beast as it strides

Have you tried calling a dealer and having them look the number up by your VIN number... Too bad they're not all in order by VIN... we could just simply count back/forward and give you your number

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2008 GPONA Members Choice Car of the Year
40th Anniversary Daytona Pace Car #1077

12.538 @ 109.89 1.877 60' 10.18.08

Well, I am not familiar with the Kansas City FairFax Manufacturing Plant. But I do believe that GM could have produced those 1500 Daytonas in one night if the bodies were pre-assembled .. The VIN numbers and the console badges WHERE not put on at the same time.... So the VIN numbers and the Badge numbers are NOT in Seq . order.

What I would like to see is the VIN # of every 1998 Daytona placed in SEQ order and see if that number equals 1500......

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Mr. Dave
1989 Turbo Grand Prix Clone
2000 Daytona 500 Pace Car #1134
1997 Cadillac Seville STS

I will check on this tomorrow..

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Never argue with an idiot, he will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

Cool Flip, Let's see what you can come up with.



If we can get the complete list of VIN's then mqay be we can search teh RPO database of each 98 Daytona to come up with an accurate final number of those Daytona's equipped with the Factory sunroofs......

Might even be able to track how many were SLP modified GTX's.

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Mr. Dave
1989 Turbo Grand Prix Clone
2000 Daytona 500 Pace Car #1134
1997 Cadillac Seville STS

ya, sadly the car just hit 10 years old and they ditched its info. i got in touvh with the 1st owner, he lost the paperwork

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Behold the majestic beast as it strides

Thats BS!!! They just don't want to do the legwork for you.. I was just into the dealer this summer about mine

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2008 GPONA Members Choice Car of the Year
40th Anniversary Daytona Pace Car #1077

12.538 @ 109.89 1.877 60' 10.18.08

IIRC.... The serial number should come up when they do the RPO breakdown by VIN #?

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Mr. Dave
1989 Turbo Grand Prix Clone
2000 Daytona 500 Pace Car #1134
1997 Cadillac Seville STS

Remember, VIN's don't go in sequence, either. So, for all 1500 to be in a 1500 number range will not happen.

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One Big Ass Mistake America

More than likely your correct. I bet they made them in "lots" instead of all at once. You figure it probably took them 2-4 total production days (maybe more) to complete the "Daytona Lot". Their schedules are made by customer demand, and 2-4 production days all at one time puts them REALLY FAR behind a "customer demand based schedule".

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