Fan Friday: Cary Gottschalk's 2021 Red Mist Metallic Tintcoat C8 Corvette Convertible

Cary Gottschalk ordered a 2020 Corvette. He never got one.

He was one of thousands caught in the strangest year in Bowling Green's history. The plant had already started late thanks to the 2019 labor stoppage, and then in March 2020 it shut down entirely. GM closed the 2020 order bank on the 18th of that month, and by summer the word came down: orders still sitting at the early event codes would not be built at all. They would have to be converted to 2021s. Most people took that news badly. Cary took it as an opening — and changed the colour he'd ordered.

Nineteen months after he first signed the paperwork, a Red Mist Metallic Tintcoat hardtop convertible finally showed up. The colour had not existed when he placed the original order. It was one of two new shades for 2021, replacing Long Beach Red, and Corvette chief engineer Tadge Juechter thought so much of it that he ordered one for himself, describing it as looking like it was lit from the inside. In the photos Cary sent, in low sun on the coast, you can see exactly what he meant — it goes from near-burgundy in shadow to a bright, orange-edged crimson where the light hits.

It has not been left alone since. Cary says he has modified the car in more ways than he can list, and the photos back him up: a Callaway supercharger, chrome five-spoke wheels behind red calipers, a vertical door conversion, an integrated radar detector, red footwell and sill lighting, and purple lighting underneath. The tan leather interior with its suede-wrapped wheel is still factory-clean under all of it. The result turns heads everywhere it goes, which is more or less the stated goal.

There's some real rarity in the paint, too. Of the 26,216 Corvettes built for 2021, 3,476 wore Red Mist — the third most popular colour that year, but in a year that was itself unusual. 2021 was also the year the convertible came into its own: 11,104 of that total were droptops, a share Corvette hadn't seen since the early 1960s, and the C8's power-folding hardtop was the first retractable hardtop ever offered on a production Corvette. Cary's car sits right in the middle of that shift. The same body style paced the 105th running of the Indianapolis 500 that May.

Two years ago the car took second in the Corvette class at the Nantasket Beach Car Show in Hull, Massachusetts — the Rotary-run show on Nantasket Avenue that raises money for Cops for Kids with Cancer. First place went to a 1963 split window. As Cary put it: "First place went to a 1963 split window, so I understand why it didn't take first place." Hard to argue.

Thanks for sharing this one, Cary — nineteen months well spent. 🏎️

Parts and Pieces for a Car Like Cary's

C8 Footwell LED Lighting Kit — $52.95 — Cary's footwells throw red across the whole cabin at night; this is the plug-and-play version of that, in seven colors, and it takes about half an hour. → Shop the C8 Footwell LED Kit

C8 Convertible Exterior RGB LED System, Level 3 — $339.95 — The underbody glow in his night shots is the hardest thing on this car to photograph and the easiest to notice in person; this is the convertible-specific kit for the side scoops, rear fascia and grille. → Shop the C8 Convertible RGB System

C8 Stingray Fish Emblem Steel Sign — from $44.99 — A trophy-winning car deserves a wall behind it that says so; 14-gauge steel in three sizes, up to four feet wide. → Shop the C8 Stingray Steel Sign

Want to be featured in a future Fan Friday? We'd love to see your Corvette. Head to our submission form and tell us your story — the car, how you found it, what you've done with it, and what it means to you. Great photos make a huge difference, so bring your best shots. We feature a new Corvette every Friday.

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