Team Penske is auctioning off a bunch of old pace cars

Fourth-generation Camaros might be common stateside, but this certainly won’t be: it’s one of just 645 ever produced in the optional Indy Pace Car livery. Driven by a massive 5.7-litre V8 - although limited by the dreary four-speed automatic transmission - it has just 364 miles to its name. Barely run in.

You’ll notice a familiar theme here, in that these cars have unusually low mileage despite their age. Example two is this Pontiac Trans Am 20th Anniversary, which sports an all-white exterior and a set of mesmerising gold-spoke alloys to match the Camel interior. Nice.

Let’s keep the Pontiac theme going for a bit longer with this Fiero Pace Car Edition. Boasting a similarly white livery, albeit with (teeny) white wheels, its next owner will have a 2.5-litre inline-four to play with… which probably won’t be enough to send them up to space. Who’d be silly enough to do that in a Fiero, right?

A bright red, convertible Chrysler LeBaron with its straight edges and fuss-free design just screams Eighties. The successful bidder can boast about owning a car which was limited to just 1,000 units, while fighting a constant battle to avoid mispronouncing its name to that of a certain tall bloke who shoots a ball through a hoop.

Alas, we arrive at the first car which would’ve actually been fast enough to pose as a pace car in its day: a fourth-generation SVT Cobra. Rio Red exterior, Saddle-themed interior and 243 ponies-worth of V8 noise to stitch it all together. It’s treasonous that this car has seen just 430 miles of tarmac in thirty years.

And cranking the notch up even further from the Cobra is this sixth-generation Corvette in Z06 guise. That means 512bhp sent to the rear wheels through a six-speed manual contraption, and likely strong petrol smells emitted from its stainless cat-back exhaust. Much want.

The Chevrolet SSR was (and is) divisive, but one wearing a pearly purple coat and smokey flames? That’s a guaranteed way of turning every head you drive past… and not for good reasons. This is the perfect car, then, for anyone who likes to live life with absolutely no regard for other peoples’ opinions. Enjoy.

An equally, shall we say 'unique' option is this Oldsmobile Bravada Pace Car. You’ve got 59 tonnes of metal and stickers here, likely doubling up as both a Demolition Derby expert and a Nascar parader. Somehow, its inline-six is expected to haul all that weight around with just 274bhp… which probably explains why just 616 miles have been racked up across its 22-year life so far.

The second Mustang to feature, and arguably as far from the sales brief as this lineage of cars has ever been. The lack of any real curvature means it's not all that handsome, but you'll not care when you’ve got a 5.0-litre V8 hauling you around generating plenty of noise, if not much, er, pace.

Let’s round things off with a familiar face in Bumblebee’s baton-wielding, donut-loving sibling. This Camaro is a replica of the one which patrolled the Indianapolis 500 back in 2009, and did a pretty good job of it thanks to over 400bhp to keep those behind in check. We’ll happily take one as our next long-term test vehicle.