1978 Chevrolet Corvette Indy 500 pace car - the leader of the pack. Part 1 - Arlington Corvette

1978 Corvette Indy 500 pace car

The mid seventies were not the best of times for Corvette. Chevrolet, along with every other US carmaker, was struggling to meet the ever more stringent safety standards and for model year 1978 would be confronted with the government mandated Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. The double edged sword of increased fuel economy and reduced exhaust emissions slashed heavily into all car makers’ budgets.

The era of the muscle car was now officially over and high performance cars like the Corvette were suffering. There were only two small block (350 cu.in.) engines offered for 1977, the standard L-48 engine which had 180 hp and the optional L-82 which was rated at 210 hp. The pavement pounding big block 427s had gone the way of the dinosaurs and dodo birds. The Corvette was a high performance car only by comparison to the rest of the cars, whose performance was never great to begin with and was further eroded by the mileage and emissions demands.

Corvette engineers, headed by Dave McLellan, and stylists, under the guidance of Bill Mitchell, had the additional burden of having to do something special for 1978, the 25th birthday of the Corvette. No major design changes had been made to the Corvette since 1974 and both the interior and the exterior designs were beginning to look a little stale.

Confronting this dilemma head on, engineering and styling departments proceeded to hit a home run. Engineering managed to squeeze more horsepower out of the L-48 (up to185 hp) and the L-82 (up to 220 hp). Styling added a new fastback rear window, vastly increasing usable interior space and giving the Corvette a brand new profile. The instrument panel was freshened up and a real glove box was added. All 1978s had special emblems on the front and rear commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Corvette. The flashy emblems were reminiscent of the glitzy Harley Earle Motorama show cars back in the fifties. The collective effect of these changes was to give the car an appearance significantly different from the ’77 Corvette.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway chose the Corvette as the pace car for the 1978 Indy 500, marking the first time Corvette had been selected. Also for the first time, Chevrolet planned to build a limited number of the special edition pace cars for sale to the public. Initially only 300 pace cars were planned, a number equal to the number of Corvettes produced in 1953. There were about 6,000 Chevrolet dealers at the time and there was a dealer uproar when it became apparent that not all were going to be able to get the limited edition pace car to sell. The dealers were well aware of the sales potential of the first limited edition Corvette and none wanted to be left out in the cold. Chevrolet headed off the incipient dealer revolt by agreeing to produce one pace car for each dealer. All told, 6,502 pace car replicas were produced.

The pace car was given a unique paint scheme – a black upper portion and a silver lower portion separated by red pin striping – and was equipped with a special silver interior which included seats that were originally designed for the ’79 Corvette. Silver tinted glass T-tops topped off the black & silver theme. Special polished slotted wheels with red pin striping were also included in the pace car package (RPO Z-78) as were a host of other Corvette options. The special edition pace cars had their own VIN numbering sequence, also a Corvette first.

News of the upcoming special Corvette pace car leaked out into the car world in 1977 and consumer interest was sparked by the first display of the pace car at the New York Auto Show in February of 1978. Production began in early March, 1978 and Corvette cognoscenti eagerly awaited their opportunity to purchase a part of Corvette history. Then, in late March, the Wall Street Journal ignited a feeding frenzy among Corvette enthusiasts, car enthusiasts and investors looking to make a quick dollar or two that was unparalleled in automobile history.

In part 2, we will discuss the feeding frenzy in more detail and take a look at what has become of the original pace cars.

Like this article? Click on the SUBSCRIBE button above to receive an e-mail notification when the next article by the Fairfax Corvette Examiner is published.

For other articles by the Fairfax Corvette Examiner, click here