With the Memorial Day Classic, the Indy 500, just one day away, sellers are taking advantage of the big race by populating the pages of Marketplace, eBay, and craigslist with their pace car replicas. We’ve seen a couple Buick pace cars from the ’70s and ’80s on Barn Finds over the course of this past week, and now there’s this 1990 Chevrolet Beretta Indy Coupe, a flashy pace car with an interesting history that has almost completely disappeared from the public consciousness. But not all Beretta pace cars are lost – here is a nearly pristine pace car found on Marketplace in St. Clairsville, Ohio, by Barn Finds’ own Russell Glantz. Frozen in time with its bright turquoise paint and hot pink accents, its asking price is $6,200.
So how did the Beretta of all cars get the nod for pacing duties in 1990? After all, it had been in production for several years, and there was seemingly little new for Chevrolet to brag about. In what could have been an embarrassing affair, Chevy did plan to introduce a new convertible model, but by early 1990 it became clear, according to Consumer Guide’s Indy 500 Pace Cars, that the Beretta Convertible was going to have some quality issues that would preclude GM from introducing it at all, ever. Therefore, the pace car itself was a modified convertible and the replicas that fans could buy in the showroom were coupes, and that was the end of the stillborn Beretta ragtop. The real pace car had a more potent 3.4-liter Chevy V6, which produced 225 horsepower, enough to keep the light Beretta well out in front of the pack. Unfortunately, the Indy Coupe was fundamentally a Beretta GT in mechanical specification, with Chevy’s 135-horsepower 3.1 doing its yeoman’s duty under that screaming turquoise hood, although it also had a “performance handling package” with 16-inch wheels. This one has an automatic, which was still a three-speed unit in 1990.
The Beretta Indy was basically an appearance package with a list price of $15,183, a couple thousand higher than the GT or GTZ (which had the Quad-4 engine). Aside from the “Indy” badging, the interior looks essentially identical to a basic Beretta’s. The seller says that the only thing about this car that can be criticized is the upholstery; a poor job was done recovering the front seats at some time in the past, and he recommends that they be redone (again).
Considering how nice this Beretta looks, you may be surprised that it has 116,000 miles on the odometer. That’s not a lot, of course, especially considering that it’s 35 years old, but it clearly is a sign of fastidious maintenance. So how many Indy Coupes were produced? That’s a tough question: The seller says that 3,115 were painted turquoise. The aforementioned Indy 500 Pace Cars claims that 1,500 were painted yellow (the color of the actual pace car) and 3,000 were turquoise. General Motors’ documents in their Heritage Archive say that Chevy planned to sell 1,500 in yellow and 6,000 in turquoise. Needless to say, its rarity doesn’t mean much today because there aren’t may left anyway; it’s become rare by attrition. There’s been a vociferous upswell in fans of the ’80s and ’90s over the last ten years, and although many might deride this Beretta as nothing more than a mediocre GM commuter, a lot of people will think that this is a cool car for nostalgia’s sake alone, if for no other reason. I like it, and $6,200 doesn’t seem that bad considering how rare it is to find any Beretta, let alone a pace car.
Nice car. My father bought one of the Chevy Z24s of this era with the same engine package and it was really quick and fun to drive. This one ought to be the same.
I remember how popular this color seemed to be back then. Its one of my favorites. I agree with Bobhess, the 3.1 did a great job moving these around. My Grandpa bought his last new car, an ’89 Corsica with a 2.8 and I was amazed how well that ran too. This one is in great condition, especially considering the miles and that not many of these were preserved, they were used as daily drivers and then traded in. The matching paint on the rims are a nice touch too. Kudos to the seller for the clean under hood photo too, The front seats do look a little off, but thats probably not going to be a deal breaker. Overall very nice Beretta.
Sharp looking cars. Nice bright paint here.. Great rims. The V6s 2.8 or 3.1 made a nice little snarl. Buddy had a 5sp GT Beretta. Fun driving unit. 🕶🏁
I remember the snarl, on the 2
8 and 3.1 you’re right, and I never drive one with a stick but I’d imagine it was very responsive.
I had this car brand new..I had the five speed it was a fun car a real looker back then I should have kept it but traded it in for a Z34 lumina….
These had a very nice sound from exhaust I remember, even the station wagons, but 3.1 engine , you have to keep changing antifreeze or intake manifold and head gasket problems come up.
Nice find Rusty!
Very nice! These really were attractive. Chevy used to make a car of every size, including trucks, but now they are only truck makers. What happened? No more big expenditures for the US? They save those for CHINA! GM is by and large, a Chinese company. I bet the Chinese own every bit of knowledge that GM has. Tariffs need to be 100% on GM! Who is more important to them, America or China?
GM is an American company, sounds like you have some personal issues with GM hahhaa.
6.9% of total GM sales were to China in 2024. Took me less than a minute to look that up. And, it is dropping every year.
So, yeah, China is REALLY important to them. Next time, spend a couple of seconds on Google before putting your fingers on the keyboard.
6.9% isn’t even a drop. Next time take 5 minutes and google simple arithmetic before you type, furthermore the comment was GM is a Chinese company and it’s simply not. Stay on subject.
Uh, I think we’re saying the same thing here. My reply was to the original poster, not you. I guess your missed my point when rushing to make the same exact point.
GONE.
I remember the first time we saw one of these. It was randomly parked in the lot at the Cup race in Loudon NH. It must have been a press or an early dealer’s car. We went over and gave it a close look and were impressed on how sharp it was. I recall the door openers in the B column, was very unique at the time.
You bring up a great point. Those door openers hidden in the B pillars were a neat feature GM came out with. The body did look very clean without a visible door handle.
Teal green and hot pink was huge in the 90’s. Nicest CJ7 I ever saw was teal with hot pink trim and lots of chrome.