Rare Rides: The Corvette Callaway Speedster From 1991 - Fast and Dangerously Teal

Corey Lewis
by Corey Lewis

From a forgotten sidebar of automotive history, today’s Rare Ride is perhaps a bit more obscure than normal. Just 10 total examples of the Speedster were produced, making it exceptionally rare. And while the front clip says, “I’m still a C4 Corvette,” the rest of the car underwent quite a transformation at the Callaway shop.

Slip on your stonewashed Jordache jeans and get ready for this rapid Rare Ride.

Listed right now on eBay is a fine example of the Chevrolet Corvette Callaway Speedster. This silver beauty is a creation of the Connecticut-based Callaway Cars company. While it’s known mostly for modification to Chevrolet vehicles, it also transforms Alfa Romeos, Range Rovers, and Aston Martins on occasion.

For this particular design, Callaway applied the body kit from the Corvette Sledgehammer (already in production) and chopped the C4’s roof.

The sides and rear of the passenger compartment have a wraparound glass area and a retro-inspired double bubble rear window arrangement.

Special OZ Racing wheels are found at all four corners; they’re original and unique to the vehicle.

Callaway did some work under hood as well, re-engineering the twin-turbo L98 V8 engine. The power figures now stand at 403 horsepower and a mighty 465 lb-ft of torque.

Aside from the bodywork, Callaway also reworked the interior on this timeless Rare Ride. Tell me, do you like teal? Teal leather (officially Wedgewood Blue) covers almost all surfaces, and there’s a custom steering wheel cover emblazoned with the Callaway name.

Customized seats bear the name of model you’ve chosen from the Callaway portfolio — Speedster. No word on top speed here, but without a roof and over 800 horsepower, it will likely not reach the 254 mile-per-hour mark of the Sledgehammer.

This particular vehicle has seen an auction block before, as in 2009 it sold (via Mecum) for $115,000. The current seller seems flexible on price. Last week, the Speedster was listed at $156,000, but has since been opened up to bidding at just $89,000. As of writing, the vehicle has two bids, sitting at $90,000. Naturally, there’s a reserve on this auction.

But how do you truly put a value on stepping out in full teal regalia?

[Images via eBay]

Corey Lewis
Corey Lewis

Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.

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  • Redapple2 I gave up on Honda. My 09 Accord Vs my 03. The 09s- V 6 had a slight shudder when deactivating cylinders. And the 09 did not have the 03 's electro luminescent gages. And the 09 had the most uncomfortable seats. My brother bought his 3rd and last Honda CRV. Brutal seats after 25 minutes. NOW, We are forever Toyota, Lexus, Subaru people now despite HAVING ACCESS TO gm EMPLOYEE DISCOUNT. Despite having access to the gm employee discount. Man, that is a massive statement. Wow that s bad - Under no circumstances will I have that govna crap.
  • Redapple2 Front tag obscured. Rear tag - clear and sharp. Huh?
  • Redapple2 I can state what NOT to buy. HK. High theft. Insurance. Unrefined NVH. Rapidly degrading interiors. HK? No way !
  • Luke42 Serious answer:Now that I DD an EV, buying an EV to replace my wife’s Honda Civic is in the queue. My wife likes her Honda, she likes Apple CarPlay, and she can’t stand Elon Musk - so Tesla starts the competition with two demerit-points and Honda starts the competition with one merit-point.The Honda Prologue looked like a great candidate until Honda announced that the partnership with GM was a one-off thing and that their future EVs would be designed in-house.Now I’m more inclined toward the Blazer EV, the vehicle on which the Prologue is based. The Blazer EV and the Ultium platform won’t be orphaned by GM any time soon. But then I have to convince my wife she would like it better than her Honda Civic, and that’s a heavy lift because she doesn’t have any reason to be dissatisfied with her current car (I take care of all of the ICE-hassles for her).Since my wife’s Honda Civic is holding up well, since she likes the car, and since I take care of most of the drawbacks of drawbacks of ICE ownership for her, there’s no urgency to replace this vehicle.Honestly, if a paid-off Honda Civic is my wife’s automotive hill to die on, that’s a pretty good place to be - even though I personally have to continue dealing the hassles and expenses of ICE ownership on her behalf.My plan is simply to wait-and-see what Honda does next. Maybe they’ll introduce the perfect EV for her one day, and I’ll just go buy it.
  • 2ACL I have a soft spot for high-performance, shark-nosed Lancers (I considered the less-potent Ralliart during the period in which I eventually selected my first TL SH-AWD), but it's can be challenging to find a specimen that doesn't exhibit signs of abuse, and while most of the components are sufficiently universal in their function to service without manufacturer support, the SST isn't one of them. The shops that specialize in it are familiar with the failure as described by the seller and thus might be able to fix this one at a substantial savings to replacement. There's only a handful of them in the nation, however. A salvaged unit is another option, but the usual risks are magnified by similar logistical challenges to trying to save the original.I hope this is a case of the seller overvaluing the Evo market rather than still owing or having put the mods on credit. Because the best offer won't be anywhere near the current listing.
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