1957 Oval Window Ragtop ~ Oddity
What the?
This extremely odd 1957 ragtop was a recent find and it was just too strange
to pass up.
We knew nothing about it, and neither did the fellow we bought it from,
but an internet search of a name on a slip of
paper in the glove box ended up filling in the blanks amazingly well.
It seems it was owned and built by an eccentric artist and rennaissance
man in the Bay area who was known
to design and wear his own clothing and hand build and play his own pianos
(among other things)
It was built for driving back and forth to his beach house in Mexico, and
after his death was donated
to the San Jose Museum of Art along with many of his artworks. The museum
than sold the car to the infamous
"Sausage King" who murdered 3 meat inspectors and eventually
died on death row.
The car was sold at auction to a San Jose based collector who then brought
it down to us for the first "Freak Show"
event at the VW Classic...and it has stayed with us ever since.
