Rare Rides: The 1998 Chevrolet Corvette Indianapolis 500 Pace Car Replica, Purple and Banana
We’ve featured a Corvette before in this series, as well as two different Indianapolis 500 pace cars, but we’ve never had a single car that combined Corvette and Indy pace car flavors together.
Turns out when that special combination occurred in 1998, it was purp drank and banana colored.
The beloved C4 Corvette lived a long time and held the sports car mantle at Chevrolet for model years 1984 through 1996. Alas, even the best generation couldn’t last forever, and in 1997 it was time for the smooth, organic looks of the new C5.
The C5 carried over many of the traditional features of the outgoing C4, including a 5.7-liter (350 cu in) V8. Whereas the C4 used an LT4 (LT5 in ZR-1) at the end of its life, the C5 heralded a new V8: LS1. The new engine produced 345 horsepower (up from 330 in the old LT4), and 350 lb-ft of torque. The Corvette’s transmission was relocated into a rear-mounted transaxle assembly and made 50/50 weight distribution possible. As expected with Corvette, manual (six-speed) and automatic (four-speed) transmissions were available.
An important performance advancement in the C5 Corvette was its new hydroformed box frame. Stronger and more rigid than the C4’s “uniframe,” the hydroform construction meant the Corvette didn’t get quite so shook under hard driving.
A year after its introduction, the convertible C5 was chosen as the official pace car of the 1998 Indianapolis 500. With much excitement, General Motors quickly created an official Pace Car Replica. Staying true to its mission, there were very few differences between the Replica available to consumers and the actual pace car (like a light bar and harnesses). All examples were painted the same Radar Blue metallic, which looks purple here in 2020. Inside, banana yellow leather complimented other surfaces in more traditional black. The wheels were unique to the Replica and painted the same color as the seats. Speaking of seats, the leather sport buckets were standard on the Replica. All Pace Car Replicas also had the Active Handling System as standard, as well as a Bose stereo, and climate control. The package was topped off with a special pace car and checkered flag graphics, as well as Indianapolis 500 badging in several places.
As one might expect, the Replica was always intended as a limited edition offering. 1,163 were built in total, with just under half of them blessed with the six-speed manual transmission. Today’s Rare Ride has been well-maintained and driven very sparingly. When new, this special Corvette was just over $50,000. With 9,600 miles, the seller is willing to let it go for $28,500.
[Images: seller]
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
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In 1993 I had a framed poster of the 40th Anniversary Corvette on the wall of my office at 3044 West Grand Boulevard: https://tinyurl.com/y3tv2uwp In 1998 I did not seek to acquire any photographic representations of the 1998 Indianapolis 500 Pace Car Replica for my cubicle at the Renaissance Center.
I remember the automotive press being very enthusiastic about that rear transaxle when this model year came out. Having looked at the bottoms of Alfas, I always thought it was a neat idea, although it meant that the driveshaft would spend a lot of its life spinning faster. And if it was such a great idea, why didn't more carmakers do it and why didn't Chevy do it with the Corvette sooner. Still, a pretty neat feature.