Vette-ran of the Turquoise Wars

If you wanted to set the pace in 1990 - at the Indy 500, as one does - then this 1-of-50 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible Festival Car in spec-teal-cular Turquoise Metallic was the only way to ride!

GM’s product planners had high hopes for The Nineties and their vision had a noticeably teal tinge to it. What better place to introduce an eye-sizzling parade of teal vehicles then the iconic Indy 500, and what better way than by providing the Official Pace Car?

But wait, there’s… less? Chevy had already committed to promoting the 1990 Beretta “Indy” GT with 1,500 Competition Yellow and 6,000 Turquoise Metallic coupes, but there was a slight problem: the Beretta wasn’t offered to the public in the convertible body style; the sticking point being the model’s door handles set into the B-pillar.

Chevy worked up a mere 7 topless Berettas for on-track use but it wasn’t much of a sales booster. The solution was to produce a second Indy-tastic Chevy, this one based on the 1990 Corvette convertible.  

In the end, Chevrolet supplied 80 “Festival Corvettes”: 30 in Competition Yellow and 50 in Turquoise Metallic, for use on the track, in parades, and for dignitaries. This great-looking survivor with just over 61,000 miles sold at Hemmings for a mere $12,348 in October of 2024.

Like its corporate sibling, these festive ‘vettes bore the Hot Pink “Indy” logo on either side along with “74th Indianapolis 500 – May 27th, 1990 text in gray. Nothing like dating one’s self!

Although Chevy didn’t offer a specific "replica" Corvette pace car for public sale, they did list Turquoise Metallic (code 42) as an option for regular and ZR-1 ‘vettes.      

Did it work? Not really? Chevy might have been ahead of the teal curve, as only 589 Corvettes left the factory in this color out of a total 23,646 standard Corvettes made in 1990. The tip of the spear-mint, one might say.