The red car shown above has been proven to be later repainted gold and transformed with body, interior and engine modifications to resemble the 1992 model year Oldsmobile Cutlass. It is not clear  when the car was red (or even if it is the same car as the black/silver pace car), it was either red before, or after the black/silver painted car (which paced the 1988 Indy 500), as its body was using the '88-'91 Cutlass Supreme styling.

When Olds was awarded the pace car project, it couldn't take a car off the assembly line because the GM10 Body (code name for W-Body) wasn't yet in production. Instead, Olds delivered to C&C (Cars & Concepts) two all-but-obsolete hand built prototypes. Olds admitted the cars were in sorry shape from extensive test work, but "we really don't care about the condition because we're going to tear it apart anyways," said Ken Hart (C&C Vice President).

In addition to the Indy 500 pace cars, 50 convertible replicas were produced by the company. If the top not already been removed, the 1988 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme pace car included performance that could figuratively blow its top. A turbocharged and intercooled version of the 2.3-liter Quad Four engine was dropped into the car producing up to 250hp.

The black and silver-gray colored Cutlass Supreme convertible pace car was driven by a man who traveled faster than any Indy 500 pilot. Chuck Yeager, the first person to fly an aircraft faster than the speed of sound, drove the Oldsmobile. The 1988 race was Yeager’s second time as a pace car driver having driven a Chevrolet Corvette two years earlier. Similar to a modern jet fighter aircraft, the Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme pace car included a head-up display system.