The 1978 Corvette Pace Car Is The Best Corvette Pace Car
The 1978 Corvette brought the swagger back to America’s sports car with more performance and a stunning paint job.
If you’re looking for a C3 Corvette, it’s hard to go wrong with the 1978 Pace Car. It’s more valuable than most of the other C3s, with the exception of the earlier steel bumper ones. But more than that, it’s the best Corvette pace car ever made.
1978 was a milestone year for the Corvette, which received many updates. In addition to the Corvette Pace Car edition, Chevrolet also commemorated the Corvette’s 25th anniversary with a two-tone silver and grey car. A new glass fastback window, similar to the C2 Sting Ray coupe and 1970s Buick Riviera, replaced the flat rear window and buttresses. New front and rear spoilers and glass t-tops added to the refreshed look.
Inside, the 1978 Corvette Pace Car received new sports seats and a redesigned dashboard. Standard equipment included an AM/FM stereo with a choice of an 8-track cassette player or CB radio. Buyers could also order the interior in silver to match the paint scheme.
In all, Chevrolet built 6,502 Corvette Pace Cars. Collectors and hoarders immediately snatched up many of these vehicles and stored them away. That’s why today, it’s still not unusual to see a Pace Car with low mileage show up on auction sites.
None of these things gets to the heart of why the 1978 Corvette Pace Car is the best Corvette pace car. But combined, they all add up. The car is much greater than the sum of its parts. Performance-wise, every other pace car edition Corvette will mop the track with the C3. But none of those cars have the swagger of the 1978 Pace Car.
It starts with improved performance. Power for the optional L-82 350-cubic inch V8 increased to 220 horsepower. Coupled with the four-speed manual transmission, the Pace Car could go from 0 to 60 in 6.5 seconds and hit the quarter mile in just over 15 seconds. It was the first time in nearly a decade that performance increased instead of getting further choked by emissions regulations. The Corvette C3’s performance heydey was still years in the past, but for the standards of 1978, it offered world-class performance and could hold its own against the Ferrari 308 GTS and Porsche 911 SC.
But the real swagger starts and ends with the stunning black and silver paint job. That color scheme with the red pinstripes and aluminum rims makes the C3. I can’t think of another car, or even another Corvette, that pulls it off so well. It’s timeless, and it highlights what a stunning design the C3 is.
The Corvette C3 always had a larger-than-life persona. But with the newfound performance and a killer paint job, it backed it up. The changes came at a time when the Corvette really needed a boost. The C4 was still six years away, and some GM leaders thought it should be canceled. But then, in a sea of brown, malaise-stricken, overwrought land barges, the Pace Car showed up like a Van Halen guitar solo to chase the way the gloom and insecurity of that era.
Photos: Chevrolet & Super Chevy
Join the Corvette Forums now!
