Enthusiasts of both the Corvette and the Indianapolis 500 race will have an opportunity to fill any remaining gaps in their collections as Mecum Auctions will be offering the most complete collection of Corvette Indy Pace Cars in the world. As part of the Keith Busse Corvette Pace Car Collection, the cars will cross the auction block during Mecum’s Indy event, held on May 15-20th.

The one that started it all. Buyers’ response to the 1978 Corvette Indy Pace Car showed how much interest these special editions could muster. These black and silver sharks are still collectible examples of the C3 generation today.

Corvette has paced the famous race a record 14 times since the first Corvette led the competitors back in 1978. Busse’s Pace Car Collection includes examples of the 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017 cars. Pace car editions from those four years were never offered for sale to the public.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Chevrolet gave Busse special authorization to duplicate the pace cars from those years using the officially licensed paint schemes and pace car graphics. The official Indianapolis 500 graphics were sent directly from the decal manufacturer to Fort Wayne, where they were applied to the cars at Tom Kelley Chevrolet before Busse took delivery.

Another reason the Busse collection is known as the “world’s largest” is due to having a trio of special 2004 Indy cars. Because similarly, a Pace Car Edition was never offered to the public in 2004, the Official Pace Car qualifies as one of the rarest of the breed.

After the 2004 race, the car was turned over to the GM Heritage Collection, where it remained until 2008. It then became part of the Bob McDorman Collection before being purchased by the Keith Busse Collection in 2010. The 2004 Indianapolis 500 Festival Car was gifted to Buddy Rice for winning the Indianapolis 500 race and the remaining special Corvette is Track Car No. 22, which was one of the vehicles used as an official parade-lap vehicle.

The collection will first be offered together as one complete set, however, if an acceptable offer of purchase is not achieved, each car will then be offered individually without reserve. Additionally, two tickets to the 102nd Running of the Indianapolis 500 Race on May 27, 2018, will also be included with each car. Allowing purchasers of each of these cars to witness Corvette pacing the famous race for a record-setting 15th time.