My car is a '61 Bonneville, with a 348hp tripower engine and a four speed transmission. Besides the drivetrain configuration (which is not very common for a Bonneville) it's unusual in other ways; it's pretty much a stripper - no power steering or brakes, no tinted window or day/night mirror, not even outside rear view mirrors. None of the things you'd expect to find on a Bonneville. In fact, the only other options listed in the PHS documents are a radio and antifreeze, and special order paint.
It has a two tone paint job; the body is Mandalay Red and the roof is Cameo Ivory, which were regular production colors in 1959. When compared to Coronado Red, which was a common Pontic color in 1961 (on Chevys it was called Honduras Maroon) it's a lot brighter and has some orange in it, so it stands out and makes the car pretty distinctive. Because of that, I've had several people come up to me at shows who remembered the car from when it was new. They've all said the same thing: "Hey, is that Vern's old car?"
From talking to these people I've pieced together the car's history. Apparently, ol' Vern had previously owned a '59 tripower Bonneville, also painted Mandalay Red and Cameo Ivory, so when it was time to get a new car he went down to the dealer and special ordered this one painted in the same colors. He also put 1959 Tripower badges on the front fenders. There were two reasons for ordering a snazzy Bonneville with the hi-po engine and transmission - for one, he was a street racer; and secondly, he was also something of a lady's man.
He sold vacuum cleaners during the day (which I suppose gave him access to plenty of lonely housewives) and then at night he and his buddies would go out and terrorize the streets. I understand the car was pretty successful in its day.
He owned the car until about 1980, when he finally put it up for sale. It was bought by a teenager, but when the kid brought the car home his dad took one look at it and told him he wasn't going to let him drive it...I guess he figured it was a little too much car for his son. They put it in the garage, and it pretty much stayed there for the next 12 years, only coming out occasionally. Finally, by then he was grown up and he wanted to buy a bass boat, so he put the car up for sale again and that's when I bought it. It only had 42,000 miles on it when I got it, and the body and interior showed it - they were really nice. However, from the condition of the drivetrain you could tell it had lived a hard life in its youth - the engine needed a full rebuild (oddly enough, it had a McKellar #10 solid lifter cam in it) and 1st, 2nd and 3rd gears in the transmission were trashed.
I don't know if Vern is still around, but if he is I'd sure like to sit down with him and buy him a beer.
