The most powerful car at the Indy 500 won’t be racing

The 109th running of the Indianapolis 500 will feature 33 cars, but the most potent vehicle won’t be parked in victory lane after 200 laps.

For the 22nd time, a Chevrolet Corvette will lead the field to the green flag at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with a C8 Corvette ZR1 set to serve as this year’s pace car.

It’s the ninth year in a row that the Corvette has paced the field, though this is the first time the car at the front of the 33-strong field will be more potent than those behind it.

While last year’s pace car was the hybrid Corvette E-Ray, the ZR1’s 5.5-litre flat-plane crank V8 engine is boosted by traditional means – a twin-turbo system.

Thanks to the two turbochargers, the ZR1 can develop up to 783kW and 1123Nm, a huge 318kW and 528Nm more than the naturally aspirated Z06.

That’s also a lot more than the circa-560kW outputs of the 2.2-litre twin-turbo V6 engines in the back of the IndyCars, however the dedicated racers are much lighter.

Though the ZR1 has a top speed of almost 375km/h, that’s still not as fast as the pole record at Indianapolis, set by Scott McLaughlin last year with a four-lap average of 376.940km/h.

The ZR1 leading the field is finished in white with emerald green and gold highlights, while it’s also equipped with a Carbon Aero package – capable of generating more than 540kg of downforce – and carbon-fibre wheels made by Australian firm Carbon Revolution.

Unlike Corvette pace cars of old, Chevrolet sadly won’t be selling a special Indy edition of the ZR1 to punters, however the standard car – which has broken production vehicle lap records at multiple US tracks – is likely to be special enough for most owners.

Sadly Chevrolet also hasn’t announced plans to bring the Corvette ZR1 to Australia, despite local showrooms hosting the base Stingray, the hybrid E-Ray and performance Z06.