The era of regional speed shops is now, unfortunately, mostly in the past. These great motorhead “dream emporiums” offered the stuff that made street cars fast and race cars faster. The car here is actually a testament to the time when these businesses were still growing and thriving, as its singular owner, the late Thomas J. Gearhart, was one of the more visible parts retailers in the Midwest. Indeed, “Gearbox,” as he was known, bought this high-horsepower 1959 Impala convertible brand new, mildly customized it as a street/strip business car, and then parked it in 1964, just as the muscle car era began in earnest. Showing just 14,829 miles since leaving a Chicago-area showroom, the car remained hidden for years and is now coming to the collector market for the first time since new. THE CAR Ending one of the most dramatic decades of development from Detroit, 1959 was only the second season for the Chevrolet Impala, but the model was fully redesigned with a different look, wider wheelbase and new roofline based on changes to GM’s overall program of vehicle design. Featuring a Fisher Body mounted to the latest X-frame chassis, as offered here in its convertible format, this Impala was a top-of-the-line motorcar from the popular brand. Moreover, as delivered new to Ferrell-Hicks Chevrolet at 5727 S Ashland Avenue in Chicago, it featured the recently released 348 CI W-head big-block engine, which had also made its debut the previous model season. Though the Impala was offered in a number of displacement and power levels from the I6 up, this car has the hottest Chevrolet big-block available that model season, the Super Turbo-Thrust V-8. A 315 HP version with an oversquare (3.25 stroke in a 4.125 bore) block configuration, solid-lifter camshaft and 10.5 compression, atop this was a trio of two-barrel carburetors under a large air cleaner. Incidentally, the normal advertised power rating for this engine was 280 HP. The 315 HP rated version was discreetly mentioned as a small footnote “for specialized applications” in the transmission section of the 1959 Chevrolet sales brochure, indicating it was just for “serious enthusiasts.” buyers needed to ask for it as a special upgrade, and it was only available in manual transmission applications. To that end, this car was ordered new with a 3-speed Synchro- Mesh box, but that was swapped out for a near-identical 4-speed version with an accompanying floor shift early in the car’s existence. The “three on the tree” equipment is still intact on the car.