2021 C8 Corvette Convertible Celebrates 18th Outing As Prized Pace Car During Indy 500's Summer Sizzle

After blowing the minds of many car experts who were eagerly waiting for the first mid-engined Corvette to debut two years ago in a California hangar, the rabid excitement and amazing performance of the C8 lives on this summer! During the legendary Indianapolis 500 last weekend, the C8 enjoyed an honor that the Corvette has previously been selected for 18 times: pacing the eager and pavement-hungry lineup while being propped up dauntingly on display.

This year the honors went to a striking 2021 C8 Corvette stealthily brandishing an Arctic White finish with black and yellow accents, which also happened to be the first convertible 'Vette to pace the Indy 500 since 2008. The Corvette is very iconic and unique in each model type and trim, but this particular head of the class wore a very awesome stripe package and stingray decals, with the addition of integrated strobe lights in the taillights, front louver, and headlights. This allows for the convertible to do away with the slight eyesore of a traditional light bar, and the car made an illustrious showing with its 6.2-liter engine mated with an 8-speed dual-clutch transmission.

During the Motor Trend team's testing sessions, the convertible managed to pipe it rapidly on up to 60 mph in a stunning 2.8 seconds and galloped through the quarter-mile at just 11.1 seconds. Everyone on sizzling summer duty here at the Mid-Missouri Powerhouse expects a slew of much more powerful C8 variants to come in the future and evolve over time just as the C7 line did to be fully prepared for pace car duty.

The Stingray took the job for the stunning C7's debut, followed up by the Z06 two years later, and then the Grand Sport before the grand finale in the blisteringly fast form of the ZR1. The Cnet auto review team spent a solid few weeks on the road with the C8, and were astonished at how incredibly quiet it was with it up in the cabin, yet fully embraced the noise of the highway once it was down. They also noted that with the well-engineered heated seats, you could rock this number with the top down for many months after the glorious days of summer!

With the modern marvel of the mid-engined layout, the available power for the C8 from layman's terms is never overwhelming, and the amount of focus the cockpit has on the driver feels as if a figment of 2001: A Space Odyssey collided perfectly with the greats of European supercar engineering. Coming in at an “absolute performance bargain” against the likes of the twice-as-pricey Acura NSX, reclaiming your social freedom this summer will be a snap with a vehicle as sensational as this!