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What actually does a festival car mean?

Coltsfan1

Well-Known Member
I just received my packet from PHS. Interesting to say the least. It did confirm that my car is #189 and it also says according to there records it was also "one of the festival cars that were used at the speedway for the Indy 500" so what's that mean? I thought I read somewhere only t top cars were festival cars. Any help would be great.
 
Was used by the execs, used in the parade etc. All were t-top/cloth cars. Something is not right with PHS' doc as there were not any hardtop/leather cars that I have ever heard of, but Jan is the expert here :)
 
Festiaval cars were the cars that drove drivers around indy.. and most should have a sharpie # where the rear lic plate go's
 
I think PHS done a mistake here; not sure what source they have for the information they provide but clearly a mistake.

There's numerous posts on here about the use of the festival cars (some used by the festival commitee and the rest used by Pontiac for press, VIP's etc) however 150 in total and all t-top / cloth.

Did someone from Pontiac drive down in a hardtop? Possibly as they did have one or two they paid for and used for PR purposes before sold at auction/s.

No 189 was invoiced directly to the selling dealer and not Pontiac so that rules out all of the above.

So I think you should talk to PHS and see why they claim it wold have been a festival car and used at Indy; and if they are wrong correct the paper work you paid for ;)
 
The only thing PHS was good for in regards to the TTA was to find out the car number. At this point it is pointless paying for their info, especially if they give out the wrong info.
 
The only thing PHS was good for in regards to the TTA was to find out the car number. At this point it is pointless paying for their info, especially if they give out the wrong info.

At one time, PHS did provide a valuable resource for third generation Firebirds. 5 or 6 yrs ago, I got a very good replica window sticker for my 82 base Firebird and a lot of other info. They were the best available at the time for repro window stickers. As time went on, with trademark and corporate problems, the quality and what they were allowed to release diminished.
 
Jan I have to agree with you but with some hesitation. First I'd love to learn my car was a festival car but if it's not oh well. But here is my theory if they used 150-175 cars how was it possible to get all those t top cloth cars? Pas was small factory and pumping so many out in addition to the other optioned ttas they had to have them in may. If pontiac wanted only festival cars to be t top cloth then why wouldn't the first 150-175 made all be top with cloth? When did they start production on these ttas?Second why would pontiac not want spectators to see all
the versions of the tta?
 
Bob cant tell but is that a serious or funny new members are killing me reference????

No No No! In no way jabs or anything like that Colts.......I just find this site so darn interesting about these cars we own. I still can't believe I own one! There's just sooo much info about them that you learn something new everyday!

I apologize if I came across that way....my bad

Bob
 
Jan I have to agree with you but with some hesitation. First I'd love to learn my car was a festival car but if it's not oh well. But here is my theory if they used 150-175 cars how was it possible to get all those t top cloth cars? Pas was small factory and pumping so many out in addition to the other optioned ttas they had to have them in may. If pontiac wanted only festival cars to be t top cloth then why wouldn't the first 150-175 made all be top with cloth? When did they start production on these ttas?Second why would pontiac not want spectators to see all
the versions of the tta?

I can't claim having the answer to all those questions but all we can do is look at the records shared with us by Scott Kelly and information we have from other sources.

If you study the PDF document here UPDATED Oct 4th 2013 - TTA Vin List - Excel and PDF format - Turbo Trans Am Forum you will see that the order placed by pontiac for the 150 + 3 cars for Indy were mixed with other orders; some being ordered by Pontiac for PR activites for instance and others were early orders from certain dealers (maybe sanctioned by Pontiac to get some out there to key dealers I don't know).

There were a plan to ramp up full production at certain dates per documents we seen from BOC (shipping engines out to City of Industry) so this was all planned and I guess they did not expect dealer orders until a certain date possibly leaving the bulk of early production for the Indy needs ...

t-top cloth cars @ Indy from my understanding this was a requirement from Indy to be able to use them for parade duty and cloth as leather get two hot to sit in for a full day ... and for some reason I presume Pontiac took the descition to not mess with complex orders and rather stuck to one single version for all 153 TTA's they ordered and paid for at the time.

Remember production started in Dec of 1988 already so plenty of cars where built before May 1989.

From all the photos I've seen from Indy I have yet to see a hardtop TTA appear in any of litarly 100's and 100's of photos.

The link above will show you all this if you study dates, where the invoice was sent etc.
 
Just got phone with PAS. There cut and paste template goofed and even tho I wanted a festival car it's not. ( who cares) but anyway a new letter is on its way. And to think I was going to list it on ebay for 100k
 
Wow, I never knew all the festival cars were cloth/t-top. Figures, out of the 187 total, that I get one of the 37 non festival cars
 
Just got phone with PAS. There cut and paste template goofed and even tho I wanted a festival car it's not. ( who cares) but anyway a new letter is on its way. And to think I was going to list it on ebay for 100k

:clap::rofl::yes:
good one!
 
I like the pic of a lady sitting where the t top is suppose to be with her feet on the sunvisor of a NEW TTA! While she was being driven aroud indy
 
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