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The C8 Corvette ZR1 Is the Indy 500’s Most Powerful Pace Car Yet
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- The C8 Corvette ZR1 Is the Indy 500’s Most Powerful Pace Car Yet
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The new Chevy C8 Corvette ZR1 will be the most powerful pace car in Indianapolis 500 history when the race is held Memorial Day weekend this year, on May 25.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway confirmed the news on Tuesday . IMS also said that multi-hyphenate Michael Strahan —who is a Pro Football Hall of Famer and a co-host of Good Morning America—will be the honorary pace car driver.
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"With a top speed of 233 mph, the Corvette ZR1 is the perfect fit to lead the Indy 500 field to green," Scott Bell, a GM vice president, said in a statement.
The Corvette ZR1 is powered by a 5.5-liter twin-turbo V-8 that makes 1,064 horsepower and that Chevy likes to compare to supercars costing much more than this auto's $174,995 starting price. The pace car version has the Carbon Fiber Aero Package, which is a $8,495 option that adds a dramatic high-wing spoiler, among other upgrades, to increase downforce and grip. The wheels are also carbon fiber, a $13,995 option on customer cars. The car gets to 60 mph in just 2.3 seconds.
Open testing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in April
Pace cars and pacemakers at the Indy 500 have a history dating back to the first race in 1911. Supplying the pace car is an honor for manufacturers, which also have used the opportunity to show off their latest and greatest cars. Packard, Duesenberg, Marmon, Stoddard-Dayton, Chrysler, LaSalle, Studebaker, Lincoln, Ford, Hudson, and Buick all supplied pace cars to the race before World War II.
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Nash, Oldsmobile, Mercury, Dodge, DeSoto, Pontiac, and Plymouth all supplied some cars in the post-war years. A Chevy made its first appearance in 1948 with the Fleetmaster and was back in 1955 with its Bel Air. The then-new Ford Mustang was the pace car for the 1964 race, followed by its competitor the Chevy Camaro in 1967. The first Corvette Indy 500 pace car was in 1978 with a C3 driven by former Indy winner Jim Rathmann.
A C4 Corvette convertible was the pace car for the 1986 edition of the race, driven by Chuck Yeager, and a C4 Corvette convertible appeared again in 1995. Starting in 1997 with the Oldsmobile Aurora, the Indy 500 pace car has been a GM product, with three C5 Corvettes, five C6 Corvettes, five C7 Corvettes, and five C8 Corvettes now among them.
"The race car-like performance of the Corvette ZR1 makes it the perfect car to pace the Indianapolis 500," IMS president J. Douglas Boles said in a statement, "and the distinctive sound of the Chevrolet V8 engine will echo brilliantly inside the walls of IMS."
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