TheHEMI.com

Jay Leno's Garage wouldn't exist without the team of experts that Jay has gathered throughout the years. A full-time team keeps everything in the Leno fleet ready for a drive at any moment, and carry out full restorations on the cars and bikes that need some time to get there.

One benefit of having such a job is that, after hours, Leno's car curators can use the facility to work on their own projects. Making the most of the space, Swedish-born Per Blixt, Leno's master painter and body specialist, spent quite some time putting together a basket case 1958 Chrysler 300D. This massive Hemi-powered luxury barge may have been far gone when Blixt got it, but it also happened to be a numbers-matching fuel-injected car, one of just 23 built with factory fuel injection. When new, the cars were recalled, de-badged and rebuilt with the standard carburetors, as the fuel injection technology was deemed a failure by Chrysler.

When Blixt found this car at a Californian recycling lot some 15 years ago, the Bendix Corporation's dual-transistor-based Electrojector system was gone, along with a number of body parts, the interior and the paint. But the carbureted 392 Hemi was there, and so the quest began to upgrade this unique survivor with a more modern, ECU-operated Bosch fuel injection system, as well as all the period options from Chrysler's 1958 catalog, 15-inch wire wheels and dual chrome exhausts included. Sporting its factory color and a brand new, Swedish-made interior, this fuel-injected '58 is the car Chrysler couldn't quite build more than 60 years ago.