Obsession o’ the Week: Wild & Wicked 2008 Indy Pace Car

Have there been too many Corvette Indy pace cars? Are they still special? We think this one certainly is.

Corvettes and the Indianapolis 500 go together like ketchup and mustard. From 1978 to 1998, the Corvette paced the Indy 500 four times, in 1978, 1986, 1994, and 1998. Some of those paint schemes were memorable for good reasons (1978) and others…well, we’ll just say they were memorable (we’re looking at you, 1998 Pace Car).

While Indianapolis 500 pace car replicas used to be a big deal as far as special-edition Corvettes go, they seem to have lost their luster since sometime around the turn of the century. We have a somewhat unpopular opinion as to why that may be the case.

Since 2002, Chevrolet has had an exclusive contract to supply the pace cars for the Indianapolis 500. This means that, with the exception of the Chevrolet SSR as official pace truck in 2003, the field has been led by a revolving rotation of Corvettes and Camaros.

We don’t necessarily think that this is a good thing, and here’s why. Think of your favorite meal. Now, imagine having that meal every day for fifteen years. It’s not your favorite anymore, is it?

Still, there are several people who still enjoy collecting Indy pace cars, and for them, this car, which we spotted on an online auction site, is the cream of the crop.

This 2008 Corvette convertible is from an unusual year for pace cars — there were two. One, in metallic green, was driven by two time Indy 500 winner and F1 champ Emerson Fittipaldi to start the race. The other, driven by Johnny Rutherford during caution periods, wore a black & silver scheme reminiscent of the 1978 Indy Pace Car.

This car wears the latter scheme, and has just 113 miles on the odometer. It’d be the perfect stablemate for someone with the aforementioned ’78 pace car.

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