The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Is Auctioning A Bunch Of Cool Stuff But All I Want Are These Indy 500 Tour Buses

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is auctioning off a bunch of items from its collection. The famous track is selling off everything from track-used racing flags and milk glasses to brake marker signs. This auction’s highlight-items are two vehicles I’d say are even cooler than any replica of an official pace car. Up for grabs are two ElDorado National MST buses riding on Freightliner chassis. Both have a unique Indy 500 livery and some track history. Even better, these pieces of IMS history would make awesome private coaches.

As racing news site Motorsport writes, Indianapolis Motor Speedway founder Carl Fisher had an idea to move away from beginning a race with a standing start. His idea was to lead the pack to a safer rolling start using a pace car. From that point, the pace car was born, and the Indy 500 has had a pace car for every race since. Pace cars have varied from the Stoddard-Dayton used in the first race to a Ford Crestline Sunliner in 1953, a Dodge Viper in 1991, and all sorts of General Motors products, including a Chevrolet SSR in 2003. Sometimes, automakers will sell off a limited number of pace car replicas. I featured a 1980 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am Pace Car Edition on a recent Mercedes’ Marketplace Madness.

I think I found two vehicles that are both rarer and maybe cooler than a pace car replica. Check out this wonderful bus:

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is auctioning off this 1996 ElDorado National MST tour bus and a 2007 ElDorado National MST II tour bus. Both have about two days left in their auctions hosted by Earl’s Auction Company. Both of these buses are a part of track history after having shuttled fans around the actual track for years. Forget a Corvette pace car replica to take to car shows, how about the ultimate Indy 500 camper?

Miles Of Driving Tourists Around The Track

This isn’t the first time the track’s museum has auctioned off items like these. Back in 2020, the track used Earl’s to auction off a bunch of professional kitchen equipment, some license plates, and at least one of the tour buses. Apparently, I’m not even the first person to think of these buses as a perfect platform for a camper. In 2022, Cummins published a press release telling the story of Donny Klotz, an Indy 500 superfan who bought a former Indy 500 tour bus and converted it into a motorhome. Based on Klotz’s story, you will probably find his bus camping out at Indy this year!

Here’s what the IMS Museum has to say about what these buses were used for:

Become part of the Indianapolis 500 tradition! Since 1996, race-winning drivers have celebrated their victory by kissing the world-famous Yard of Bricks. Now, you can experience this hallowed ground for yourself on our Kiss the Bricks Tour.

Guests will depart from the Museum on a 30-minute bus tour narrated by legendary racing broadcaster Bob Jenkins. The tour will take you on a lap around the famous 2.5-mile oval with a stop at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway finish line, where you can kiss the historic bricks!

The Earl’s auction pages don’t give us much information about what these buses are aside from the fact that they ride on a Freightliner chassis, but I immediately knew what they were based solely from their body designs. Transit buses built by ElDorado National-California (today known as ENC) always looked just a little different than the typical bus. The buses for sale here a good example of that, but also just take a look at an ElDorado Axess. Just a little different, right?

What’s An ElDorado Bus?

ElDorado Bus says it started in Minneapolis, Kansas during the 1950s. Back then, the company was called Honorbuilt Manufacturing and it was founded by Bob Stewart to construct campers under license from a company on the west coast. Honorbuilt’s camper was called the “El Dorado Coach” and it was reportedly a popular truck camper. Ward Manufacturing from Ohio purchased Honorbuilt in 1965 and Honorbuilt became a division of Ward. Stewart’s company would continue to expand and in the early 1970s, the company got into building motorhomes. In 1978, Stewart bought out the partners in his company and rebranded the operation as El Dorado RV. Soon after, El Dorado expanded further by getting into the transit bus market.

Things get a bit weird in 1988. El Dorado, which had been renamed again to the ElDorado Motor Corporation, bled $5 million after RV sales slowed down. That year, the company went bankrupt and its savior was Thor Industries. Thor took ElDorado’s commercial bus division and combined it with National Coach when Thor bought that company in 1991. The business was split up into two divisions. One was called ElDorado National–California and the other ElDorado National–Kansas. The California division would build larger commercial buses while the Kansas side built buses out of van cutaways.

To further confuse things, in 2013, Thor sold all of Eldorado National to Allied Specialty Vehicles, which later became REV Group. The Kansas cutaway division was sold to Forest River in 2020 and it rebranded to just ElDorado Bus. Today, the California commercial bus division of ElDorado is still held by REV group and is known as ENC. So yeah, it’s basically one company existing as two and owned by RV manufacturer conglomerates.

These ElDorado Buses

These buses were built when Thor Industries called the shots and were constructed by the ElDorado National-California division. I couldn’t find much about the development history of these buses. Not even the bus nerds at the Canadian Public Transit Discussion Board can give you production years or a development history. What I can tell you is that the body of the 1996 ElDorado National MST for sale here was available in lengths from 24 feet long to 32 feet long. They also rode on Freightliner’s MB-55 chassis.

Freightliner says its MB is a front-engine straight rail commercial bus chassis designed for light to medium-duty applications like shuttle buses.

IMS does not state what engine is under the front floor of this bus, but Canadian Public Transit Discussion Board notes that ElDorado MSTs from this era did have the option for 5.9-liter inline six Cummins ISB power. These engines ranged from 185 HP to 260 HP in output. The older bus (below) has 171,635 miles, but presents in overall good shape.

There are some scrapes here and there and the right-side mirror is sort of dangling, but those aren’t terrible issues to overcome. If there is a Cummins ISB up front, it should have plenty of life left and it should be backed by an Allison automatic.

The newer 2007 ElDorado National MST II up for grabs here hasn’t seen as much action. It’s taken people on 74,909 miles worth of track tours and it’s in similarly decent condition. The body on this bus looks better than the older one, but the driver seat has tears covered up with duct tape.

A plate states that this bus rides on Freightliner’s MC chassis. The ElDorado MST II, as the name suggests, is an update to the older MST design. Apparently, those updates include a totally flat floor, better corrosion resistance, a vehicle location system, modular vehicle logic units, and more. The Freightliner MC chassis is a front-engine, straight-rail chassis meant for RVs. Power comes from a Cummins B6.7 inline-six diesel making 340 HP and 700 lb-ft torque backed by an Allison automatic transmission.

Of the two, I’d say the newer bus is probably the better pick if your goal is a bus to drive down the highway with. I’d also say that these buses would make a better platform for a camper than an old school bus. You won’t have to deal with having to paint a yellow body a different color and these buses were designed with highway speeds in mind. Plus, these buses have huge windows and should be more comfortable going down the road than a school bus is. It’s also subjective, but I’d think these look closer to a motorhome than a school bus does, too. One huge benefit is that I spot air-conditioners in these, which is something you won’t have to worry about.

Or, maybe you would just use these buses as the ultimate tailgate rig like I see some football fans do with old buses. The possibilities are practically endless. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway says that both buses run and drive, but both are currently having problems with their wheelchair lifts. That’s not surprising, when I bought my RTS bus I was warned by multiple fleet managers that wheelchair lifts break all the time and your best bet is to delete them and forget about it.

If you’re as in love with these buses as I am, both have two days left in their auctions. The 1996 is currently bidding at $3,025 with the 2007 sitting at $4,075. Head over to Earl’s Auction Company if you want in on these pieces of Indy history.

(Images: Indianapolis Motor Speedway unless otherwise noted.)

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