The 1990 Indy Beretta Pace Car is truly unique. Only 75 of these cars were
ever produced...one paced race, and two were on pit row during the Indy 500.
The Beretta convertables were built by and converted by Cars & Concepts. These
cars were actually Beretta GT's, which had been throughly modified. The roof
was cut, the chasis modified, and the tops were powered and had real glass with
a window defogger. The cars were fitted with modified 206-cid ohv V-6 (3.4L V-6)
engines which yielded 225 (SAE net) horspower. The Indy Pace car (according to
Chevrolet) could do 0-60 in 5.8 seconds; a 1/4 mile in 13.8 seconds@105mph.
Hydramatic 4T60-E transmissions were also added. Chevrolet invested an enormous
amount of money into the berettaindy program. Unfortunanlty, the Indy convertible
didn't meet the standards thatGM had set forth. For example, the fiberglass
three piece boot made the car alittle difficult to handle. The company flew a
technician in to refit the front and rear suspension with many new components
before race day. Contrary to common belief, 7500 pace car replicas were produced
in order to celebrate the Beretta's Indy 500 appearence.
see replica pictures further down
Jim Perkins (the man in the picture)drove the beretta pace car that
actually paced the 1990 Indy 500 race. Perkins is also the Gerneral
manager of Cheverolet and the person who made the final call to kill
the beretta convertible production.>
7500 Indy Beretta Pace Car replicas were manufactured, all
of which were hard-topped, and not convertibles. Only 1500
replicas were Yellow (top), and other 6000 were teal (bottom).
Click Here for More Indy Pace Car Pictures
Click Here for Indy Beretta Specs