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A black-on-black 1959 Chevrolet Corvette carrying a rare combination of factory fuel injection, a four-speed manual, and the seldom-seen heavy-duty brake package is drawing serious bidder interest this week on Hagerty Marketplace, where the auction has already climbed past $30,000 with more than a week left on the clock.
Listed by seller Metroauto out of Clinton Township, Michigan, the convertible pairs its 283-cubic-inch V8 with the Rochester mechanical fuel-injection system that Chevrolet reserved for buyers chasing the sharpest throttle response GM could offer in 1959. The listing ties the engine to a pad stamped F505CS, which corresponds to the 290-horsepower Fuelie rating, backed by a Borg-Warner T-10 close-ratio four-speed gearbox.
What separates this particular car from the usual first-generation Corvette crossing the block is its heavy-duty brake option: finned aluminum drums, sintered metallic linings, and stiffer springs, a package few original buyers checked off given its added cost. Paired with the Fuelie engine and close-ratio gearbox, it represents one of the more serious, track-minded configurations Chevrolet could build for the street in the final year before the Corvette's next major restyle.
The car wears a black repaint over its silver coves, with a replacement soft top and interior carpet installed under previous ownership, and it comes with a color-matched removable hardtop plus a factory Wonderbar AM radio. Sixteen bids from multiple bidders have already pushed the price well past $30,000 ahead of the sale's close on Tuesday, August 11.
For context on where this Corvette sits in the market, Hagerty Valuation Tools track pricing and sales data across more than 40,000 collector vehicles, with the C1 generation remaining one of the most closely followed corners of the hobby under the site's World of Corvettes coverage. Fuel-injected, big-brake, four-speed cars like this one typically command a premium over base 230-hp models paired with a Powerglide automatic, since the combination was rare when new and rarer still to find unmolested today. Anyone trying to gauge what a numbers-matching Fuelie convertible should bring can pull a free estimate from Hagerty's price guide before placing a bid of their own.
Motorious has covered the 1959 Corvette's story in more detail elsewhere, including the cleaned-up dash and detail changes that answered criticism of the 1958 model. The Fuelie option wasn't the last time Chevrolet made headlines with the nameplate's engineering, either; decades later, Motorious looked at how the 1984 Chevrolet Corvette introduced the first full redesign of the car in fifteen years. And for buyers who like their 1959 Chevrolets with a little less polish, Motorious also recently featured a hand-built 1959 Chevrolet 150 rat rod nicknamed Tetanus, proof the model year still has plenty of stories to tell outside the Corvette lineup.
With bidding active and more than a week remaining before the auction closes, this Fuelie convertible is shaping up to be one of the more closely watched big-brake Corvettes to cross Hagerty Marketplace this summer.
