Collectors have spent decades politely ignoring the Ferrari Mondial. Then came chassis 76390. Ferrari reportedly invested approximately $1 million in 1987 — a figure that exceeds $2 million in inflation-adjusted estimates — transforming a single Mondial into a bespoke pace car for PPG’s CART Indy Car World Series program. The car recently resurfaced inside The Caretakers Collection, per reporting by The Drive, sharing floor space with Tucker sedan number 29 of 51 and one of just 12 GM Futureliners. A cabinet of curiosities for American automotive history just got its most Italian artifact back.
The Ferrari Nobody Expected to See at an Indy Car Race
Ferrari had reportedly abandoned a CART program roughly a year before this car even debuted — which makes what came next stranger, not less significant.
Design came from Turin-based I.DE.A under Ercole Spada — not Pininfarina, Ferrari’s longtime production-car partner — and was first presented as a full-size styling model at Laguna Seca on October 9, 1987. The completed car reached PPG in the United States the following June. I.DE.A stretched the Mondial’s wheelbase by approximately 50 millimeters and reworked the front and rear structures. The revised bodywork added streamlined fasciae, corrugated body trim, and integrated safety lights, while clear flying-buttress sections framed the engine cover. Inside, Kevlar and suede replaced the standard cabin.
Key details on chassis 76390:
- Mid-mounted 3.4-liter V8, factory-rated at approximately 300 horsepower — though specialist sources, including the PPG Pace Cars catalog, list differing figures
- Ferrari-estimated 0–62 mph in 6.3 seconds; reported top speed of approximately 158 mph, with some sources citing lower figures
- Active PPG pace car from at least 1988 through 1991
- Displayed at Galleria Ferrari in Maranello in 2013; reportedly associated with collector John Goodman following a 2004 auction
According to the PPG Pace Cars catalog, it is the only Ferrari identified as having joined the PPG Pace Car Team. Ferrari has characterized the car as an exceptional safety car that paced Indy Car World Series events across the United States. Forza reported it was not especially reliable during active service. The Mondial’s reputation, apparently, traveled with it.
What Survives When the Spectacle Ends
The PPG program turned corporate sponsorship into one-off automotive spectacle — and most of that fleet quietly vanished.
Manufacturers built elaborate one-offs for event promotion and passenger hot laps. When the contracts ended, some cars were reportedly crushed, scattered into private ownership, or forgotten inside educational institutions. This Ferrari survived the dispersal of much of that PPG fleet. Its significance sits in the combination: documented chassis identity, I.DE.A provenance, CART history, and four decades of survival through uncertain ownership. That is a harder thing to build than the car itself.
Most Mondials depreciated quietly into weekend-driver obscurity as exotic cars so often do. This one was designed by I.DE.A rather than Pininfarina, carried a reported top speed of approximately 158 mph, and reportedly cost a million dollars before a single flag dropped — and it still exists.
