Charles Leone is a car freak from way back. It started a lifelong obsession when he was a young boy working on his father’s car. Like many children of the 60’s he was interested in TV and Movie cars like The Batmobile, the Monkee Mobile and the Munsters Cars. One day when he was about 10 years old and watching The Green Hornet on TV he heard a commercial announcing the special appearance of the Black Beauty in his home town. He drove his mother crazy until she agreed to take him after school on a cold Wednesday winters afternoon to Shoppers World in Melrose Park Illinois. Charles arrived and there was nobody there except what turned out to be BB2 sitting on a flatbed trailer. Seeing the car in person only helped to fuel Charles passion for these cars and he knew then he had to build one.

Charles in an odd twist of fate met up with BB2 several more times in his life. When he was about 17 he visited the Chicago Historical Antique Auto Museum where director JJ Born had recently acquired BB2 from California. Charles took copious measurements which he later used as reference to build his tribute car. However Charles was dismayed to find that George Barris had also added his touch to the car by painting on door hornets and pin striping the car.

Charles reports that when JJ Bourns museum was closing in 1985 he saw the BB2 sell to a local area surgeon for $10,000. Later in 1990 he saw a copy of the DuPont Registry where the car was offered for sale at $350,000 by Vintage Auto of Cleveland. The price was so high Charles could not even consider paying that high an amount for an un-restored car.

Charles tribute car dreams took one big step forward when he was on vacation in Ft Myers Florida where he found a nice clean 1966 Imperial for sale. Now with this car and the BB2 measurements he decided to go to work. Not having accurate measurements from BB1 he adjusted what measurements he had in an effort to build a hybrid of both BB1 and BB2.

Now living in Florida, Charles used 20 gauge steel and formed the necessary body modifications to make the Black Beauty. Charles using his ingenuity made rockets from Estes model rocket parts, even adding an oil injection unit to make an operable smoke screen creating unit. Life took a turn for Charles and he decided to sell the Imperial and he moved back to the Chicago area. Year’s later things were not the same without his old car so he tracked it down and found it was in Georgia and he was able to buy it back and bring it to the Chicago area. He started to work on it immediately and this is his car undergoing the transformation process once again. Charles reports that he has located another 1966 Imperial and will be converting it to a Black Beauty soon.

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This unique looking replica was built in New Jersey by Tom Mitchell.

FYI: The car's "X-3" designation is rumored to be a reference to "Speed Racer". The term "Mélange" means a combination of parts.

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