1955 Indianapolis: like to know some background on its re-discovery

[HistoryBuff]

I was stunned when I saw this car at Pebble a few years back. It recently was at auction, in November. On the Auction co. website (http://rmauctions.com/lots/lot.cfm?lot_id=1063505

there's a portion of the description which says:

"When shown at Turin, the Indianapolis achieved the

recognition that Boano had sought, including a cover feature in the November

1955 issue of Auto Age magazine, asking “Is this the next Lincoln?” Following

the close of the Turin show, the Indianapolis was purchased by Ford, reportedly

at the behest of Henry Ford II, and it was shipped to the United States. Gian

Carlo Boano later recalled that Carrozzeria Boano Torino was offered a 10-year

exclusive contract to design for Ford, but they instead chose to establish a

styling center for Fiat instead.

In 2001, the late, revered automotive historian Beverly Rae Kimes wrote the

Indianapolis’s definitive biography for Automobile Quarterly, Volume 41, Number

3. In researching the car, Kimes attempted to lend weight to longstanding

claims that Henry Ford II had given the Indianapolis to legendary actor Errol

Flynn, but only circumstantial proof was found.

The Indianapolis was reportedly later shown in Boston, where it sustained

damage to the interior and was later acquired by Felix Duclos, of Manchester.

Its history thereafter is well known and continues most prominently with Thomas

Kerr, the renowned Packard collector and active Classic Car Club of America

member.

Kerr remains the Indianapolis’s longest-term owner, and he was the man

responsible for its rebirth. He owned it for three decades, and, during his

ownership, he recognized its importance as a one-off piece of design history.

Jim Cox Sr. and his son, Jim Jr., of Pennsylvania, took on the challenge of

restoration. "

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All I would like to know is: when Duclos bought it, was it decrepit and ignored, and forgotten? Was it published what he bought it for? Or the same when Kerr bought it.

Also on the three pipes on the side, didn't Hudson Jet Itaia have three pipes on the side? Seems like this was an obsession with Italians to have chrome pipes showing? Also has anyone plumbed the HFII -Errol Flynn rumor any more to establish if he gave it to him. I haven't read much on Erroll but saw some book at a thrift shop that claimed he was a Nazi spy!

Anyhow I'd like tohear about this car's years in the wilderness if anyone knows...and it looks better than the Zeder, the other American chassis Boano bodied that is hidden deep in the bowels of the Petersen Museum.