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500 Pace Cars
(1911-2007)
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1990-2007
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1911-1929
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1971-1996
Chrysler has not had the best
of luck,
when it comes to being represented at Indianapolis 500 race events.
A tragic accident right as the green flag was thrown in the first lap of the 1971 Indianapolis 500, where the pace car was driven into the press stand, injuring 20 and almost totaling the original pace car. Then there was the 1991 last minute protest led by the U.A.W. over the Japanese built 1991 Dodge Stealth. And last, but not least... the obvious bias towards naming General Motors products to pace the race.
Bias towards naming General Motors vehicles
as
Indy Pace Cars in the past 50 years
It is obvious to anyone who looks at the
statistics that the overwhelming majority of Indy pace cars are, and always have
been of General Motors manufacture.
In the past 10 years (1998-2007) GM has had 100% of the Indianapolis Pace Cars, 60% of them are Corvettes!
There is nothing wrong with Corvettes, but it's an absolute outrage that
there is no variety in the pace car choice anymore.
Even with all of the new Chrysler Hemi powered cars
out there (300, Magnum, Charger, etc.), and some other pretty fast/sporty SRT
models, they still have not picked a Chrysler since 1996.
Ford Motor Company (#2 of the traditional "Big 3" from the USA, and now the
only other company considered to still be an American Car Company), is fairing even
worse than
Chrysler. It's a disgrace!
Look at these statistics from the 91 races, from years 1911-2007
Statistics Broken Down by Manufacture
| Years included in Statistics | Total of Years Included | (GM total #) % GM | (Ford total #) % Ford | (MoPar total #)) % Chrysler | (Others total #) % "Others" |
| ALL 1911 - 2007* | 91 | (42) 46% | (12) 13% | (12) 13% | (25) 27% |
| LAST 10 YEARS 1998-2007 | 10 | (10) 100%** | (0) 0% | (0) 0% | (0) 0% |
| LAST 20 YEARS 1988-2007 | 20 | (17) 85% | (1) 5% | (2) 10% | (0) 0% |
| LAST 30 YEARS 1978-2007 | 30 | (25) 83% | (2) 7% | (3) 10% | (0) 0% |
| LAST 40 YEARS 1968-2007 | 40 | (33) 83% | (3) 6% | (4) 10% | (0) 0% |
| LAST 50 YEARS 1958-2007 | 50 | (37) 74% | (6) 12% | (6) 12% | (1) 2% |
* % AMOUNTS ROUNDED (Won't
total exactly 100%)
** Corvettes alone total # (6) @ 60%
OH YA.... I forgot to mention the 2008 Indy Pace Car has
been picked, and guess what....
it's another damn Corvette!
That's 5 straight years with ONLY Corvettes! and 7 in the past 11 years
(64%) we've had a Corvette Pace Car...
100% of the past 12 years with only GM products!
I feel like the people in charge of making the Pace Car pick either have no
imagination, or are making too much money off of GM to pick anything else.
There are lots of NON GM cars that should be picked (or should have been
picked years ago) to pace the INDY 500.
The "new" Mustang, the "retro" Thunderbird, the Mercury Marauder, the Charger
SRT 8, the Magnum SRT8, The Chrysler 300 SRT8, and ESPECIALLY the new 2008
Challenger R/T!
It's a shame that money figures into the equation...
It's our money being spent at the track, and we want some variety!
List of ALL Indianapolis 500 Pace Cars Click Here
List of ONLY CHRYSLER PRODUCT Indianapolis 500 Pace Cars Click Here
Original Copyright November 11,1997 R. Shinn
Jr.
Last revised:
March 12, 2008 10:43:23 AM -0500.