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

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.