INDY PACE CAR V8 AUTOMATIC L-82 BLACK GRAY LEATHER LIMITED EDITION 12k MILES

For decades,Chevrolet has produced special edition Corvettes to commemorate milestones of the brand, to celebrate anniversaries and, of course, to serve as the official pace car of the Indianapolis 500.While the idea of a Corvette pace car is almost common place today, the tradition of using“America’s Sports Car”as an official pace car actually begin in 1978.

The1978 Corvettewas significant becauseit marked the cars 25th anniversary of production. Recognizing the achievement of manufacturing a car for a quarter-century,Chevroletcommemorated this accomplishment by introducing two special-edition Corvette that year. The first of these was known as the“Silver Anniversary”edition Corvette.It featured a two-tone silver over gray exterior with special pin-striping and special“25th Anniversary”badging.

When originally introduced as an option,the 1978 Indy Pace Car Replica had a base price of $13,653.21,which was approximately$4,300 more than the base Corvette that same year!Following a front-page article in theWall Street Journal,prices for these limited-edition Corvettes went through the roofas they were quickly snapped up by collectors. The sudden scarcity of these cars combined with their collectibility status tempted some owners of standard1978 Corvettesto try and pass them off as factory Pace Cars.All that was needed was a black or silver car with the right options, access to a paint-booth, moderate skill painting a car and access to someone in a Chevy dealer’s parts departmentthat was willing to sell the two spoilers and the special silver cabin trim (though most counterfeiters were either unaware of or would forget about the special seats).

Naturally,the development of a special Corvette Pace Car meant an opportunity forGMto market the design to consumers. Even before the car was officially announced, rumors of a special-edition Pace Car excited enthusiasts and would-be future owners. Chevroletinitially decided that they would produce 2,500 Indy 500 Pace Car replicas –100 cars for each year of Corvette’s production since1953.Each of these cars would be sold on a“first come, first serve”basis.

However, asChevroletalready had 6,200 established automobile dealerships at the time,it was quickly decided that a minimum order of 6,200 units should be built so that each showroom could have at least one Pace Car in it.As such, the“Limited Edition Indy Pace Car Replica”Corvette actually accounted for 15 percent of all the1978 Corvettes,with a total of 6,502 Pace Cars produced that year.

978 was the 25th anniversary of Corvette. To celebrate a competely re-designed body was rolled out with new "fastback" styling. The new wrap-around rear window provided much more space behind the seats but was not a hatchback. Access to the storage space is still accessed from behind the seats. All Corvettes this year came with special 25th anniversay badging. A special "Anniversay Edition" included a unique Charcoal Silver/Silver Metallic two-tone paint job for an extra $399. Production of the anniversay edition was not limited and 15,283 Corvettes were eventually sold with this paint. The 1978 Corvette was the pace car for the Indy 500. Chevrolet created a limited edition pace car replica, this option added over $13,000 to the price of the car (more than the base price!). This car has distinctive Black/Silver two-tone paint with a red pin-stripe. Production of the pace car replica was limited to one for every Chevrolet dealership. This amounted to 6,502 pace cars built in 1978. All '78 Corvettes were built with Rochester Q-Jet carburetors.