Many car enthusiasts think of the 1950s as the decade of bulk. Bigger really was better, and too big was just right, in an era when it was frequently joked that most American cars required their own zip codes. However, this was also a decade of performance, when engine technology began to produce more and more horsepower, and that magic number became a bone of contention between automakers. Americans finally began to appreciate the joy that came from flooring the accelerator, and the Big Three answered accordingly, by helping out participants in the newly popular sport of stock car racing.

The 1957 Oldsmobile, for instance, could be had with something known as the J-2 option. It began with the stock Olds Rocket V-8, enlarged that year to 371 cubic inches and with higher 10:1 compression. Oldsmobile’s mad scientist engineers then removed the standard four-barrel carburetor and installed a new intake with three Rochester two-barrel carbs. Under standard operation, only the center 280 CFM carb was functioning. When it came time to hit the track, or leave the stoplight, the driver would put “pedal to the metal,” and the outside carburetors, working off the windshield wiper motor, would open up, each flowing 290 CFM. Breathing through dual exhaust, the result was 300 brake horsepower and 415 foot-pounds of torque.

Lee Petty’s J-2-outfitted ’57 Olds sailed down Daytona Beach at 144.9 miles per hour. Bill France Sr., recognizing an unfair advantage when he saw it, complained that Oldsmobile wasn’t offering the J-2 to the public, and he was right. Oldsmobile responded by putting the J-2 on the options list for Mom and Dad’s new car, but the Automobile Manufacturers Association’s ban on factory support for racing came down not long after and settled the matter. The J-2 would last on the books until 1958, but they remained rarely ordered, as few people knew about it. Those “in the know,” however, likely never forgot it.

The buyer who knew about and desired the J-2 would likely have installed it on a stripped, lower-line model, which makes top-of-the-line examples such as this Starfire Ninety-Eight Convertible equipped with it all the rarer. This particular car received a full body off restoration while in the care of its previous owner, who was the same West Texas Oldsmobile enthusiast from whom Mr. Davis’ matching Coronado Yellow Holiday Coupe was also acquired. An ideal companion in this “matched set,” it is equipped with not only the J-2 carburetion but a black and yellow interior, rear fender skirts, and very rare factory air conditioning, seldom seen in 1957, even more so in a convertible, and was practically impossible to find with such a powerful engine under the hood. It all adds up to one of the best-equipped and fastest Oldsmobiles of the decade—a car in which NASCAR’s greatest could ride with the wind in their hair.