1978 Corvette Pace Car

62nd Running of the Indianapolis 500

Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the Chevrolet Corvette was already in its 25th year of production when, in 1978, it finally served for the first time as the pace car for the Indianapolis 500. The black and metallic silver Corvette was powered by the L82, a 350-cubic-inch overhead valve V8 engine which could produce 220 horsepower at 5,200 RPM. Chevrolet had originally planned to build 2,500 replicas, but by the time retired former “500” winner Jim Rathmann paced the field down for the start on race morning, orders had already reached 6,500, and would eventually top out at around 7,000.