Penske PC-5

The Penske PC-5 was Penske Racing's first USAC Indy car, built for the 1977 season. Geoff Ferris, the British designer who had drawn the team's Formula One cars, made it as an almost exact copy of the McLaren M24, which Penske had been running at Indianapolis, and it served as a testbed before the team built its own design, the PC-6, for 1978. Only one was made, and it raced rarely because Tom Sneva preferred his McLaren M24 and used it to win the USAC National Championship that year. Sneva first raced the PC-5 at Michigan in July 1977 and took a fourth place there, and it was also used at Texas World Speedway and Ontario. The car was sold on to other entrants and was wrecked in 1982. Sources differ on whether it ran at the 1977 Indianapolis 500.