Debuting in 1955, Chrysler's vaunted 300-series “letter cars” established the company as a leader in performance and style. For a full decade, each successive model was given an assigned alphabet letter suffix, and today the cars are considered an important ancestor of the muscle car.

After three years of the same exterior design wrapped around body-on-frame construction, the 300F of 1960 brought major change to the series as the first letter car built with unibody construction. Passengers were treated to an interior with four individual, leather-covered, contoured bucket seats—also a first for the letter series. The front chairs swiveled to aid ingress and egress. A full-length center console running from the front to the rear of the cabin included armrests, storage compartments, power window controls, an ashtray, and a large tachometer. The futuristic AstraDome instrument panel featured an array of Space Age switchgear and a 150-mph speedometer illuminated by innovative Panelescent Light, a soft green glow designed to create less glare and thus be easier on the eyes.

Under the 300F’s hood was a 413-cubic-inch Golden Lion V-8 engine fed by Chrysler’s all-new, NASCAR-inspired Ram-Tuned Induction system that positioned a pair of Carter four-barrel carburetors 30 inches away from their targeted combustion chambers. The runners between the carburetors and cylinders used sonic wave frequencies to compress the air-fuel mixture for greater midrange power. With its race-tuned enhancements, this version of the Golden Lion generated 375 horsepower and 495 pound-feet of torque when new. The most expensive letter car to date, the 300F Convertible listed for $5,841, even higher than Chrysler’s ultra-luxurious Imperial line. Just 248 300F Convertibles were built for 1960, including the impeccable example offered for sale here.

Finished in black over a sumptuous black and tan leather interior and equipped with the highly desirable factory air conditioning, this 300F wears a high-quality older restoration befitting such a pivotal automobile. The 300F is one of the more rakish examples of the Chrysler letter-car series, with its wide-mouth grille, sculpted rear decklid, and futuristic Panelescent Light instrument cluster that emits an ethereal glow at night.

Among the most dashing of all Chrysler’s letters cars, relatively rare, and cloaked in a show-stopping black finish, this 300F convertible represents a high-water mark in American automotive performance and luxury.