Well, we're digressing from the '59 F.I. topic, but yes, I am very familiar with that car. It is a very legit "real" hi-po (335hp, late production) 348 4-spd car. Believe it or not, that car came out of the same garage where the Jenkins/Strickler '63 Z-11 Ol' Reliable IV was stored for many years. The second owner of the Z-11 (who re-lettered it with his own name) also owned the '59 convt. (The '59 was also raced and had 14Kmi on it). While he was racing that car, Jenkins was racing a black '59 convt. The two cars were parked side by side in his shop in Pitman, NJ. Jenkins bought the Z-11 back in '84 (I believe) and had it repainted and re-lettered as it was when he and Dave raced it, but left everything else untouched, including the engine and peeling white paint on the frame. He brought the car to the Super Chevy meet at Maple Grove in '85 and ran it. (I was also running my '62 convertible at that meet and somewhere lost is a photo of my car next to the Z-11 in the pits). Anyway, back to the '59. Sometime in the late '80s, Chip Gerst (who lived in NJ at the time, but later moved to CA to broker cars for Boyd) bought the car, then sold it to Joe Carfagna of Franklin Lakes. Joe was just a young kid at the time, but with access to plenty of family money, and supplementing his income by "turning over" cars. He had a "restoration" shop set up behind a friend's house in Hope, NJ (up near Island Dragway) where they re-did the car. I hate to say it, but it was a terrible restoration. Just a quickie job with tons of problems and poor workmanship. The car was in the car corral at Carlisle, offered at $85K, with a sign indicating it came out of the same garage as the Z-11 (somehow thinking that would add value to the convertible). Less than a year later, the car went to the Netherlands for $80K. I have the car completely documented, with good photos of it "un-restored". In my opinion, the car deserved better........
Verne.