The Frontrunners

America’s sports car and America’s race: They go together like whole milk and victory. The Chevrolet Corvette has led fields of shrieking Indy cars over the bricks at the Indianapolis 500 more times than any other vehicle and, since 2002, Chevrolet has had an exclusive deal to provide pace cars and festival cars for the event.

Over the years, Chevrolet has offered Indy 500 pace car replica Corvettes to the public in limited numbers with some cool and/or available features along with, of course, the requisite graphics. These cars make great collectibles today, particularly for enthusiasts who appreciate the Corvette’s racing heritage and the role of open-wheel racing in American motorsports history.

There have been a few Corvette pace car replicas created by specialty shops and aftermarket decals are readily available, but we’re addressing the 1978-’08 factory-issued replica editions here. A check of the classifieds and revealed several 1978s, a 2008, and a 2007 for sale, as well as a couple of special 2003 “festival cars,” built