Do you remember Frank Gesualdo???

[YellowFever]

Hello everyone,

I wanted to ask if any of you remember an old friend of mine, or have any idea what has become of his car over the years. Please excuse the length of this post... I've got a lot to cover.

 

Frank Gesualdo (Geswaldo?) was a native New Yorker who lived in Panama City Beach, FL during the 80's. He was a Bay County Deputy Sheriff... but he was a cool guy anyway

 

When I first met Frank in about 1988 he had a white 280ZX in his garage and he was preparing to put a de-stroked 400 small block Chevy in it. He had already built the bottom end of the engine, then came upon a deal that he couldn't pass up. Someone he met through his job wanted to sell a 6-71 blower, complete with carbs, SBC manifold, pulleys, and scoop. He put the blower on his engine, even though it was intended to be naturally aspirated. He had to underdrive the blower 25% because of the flat top pistons in his engine. He figured he would drive the car in this state while he worked on a stronger, low-compression short block.

 

Even with the 25% underdrive the car was a beast. It had absolutely NO traction. He gave me a few rides around the block... all I could do was giggle. But I did notice that his boost gauge almost never rose above zero... he would be lucky to see spikes of 2-4 psi. He drove the car like this for a while, and entered it into a few local car shows.

 

One day I stopped by his house only to find a huge hole in the back of the car. The hatch was open, but all I could see was concrete... everything from the seats back had been cut out. It was being replaced with square tubing, coil-overs, narrowed Ford 9" rear axle, and some huge Mickey Thompson tires. Frank was fed up with not having any traction! He also did some major surgery on the front end of the car... but I can't remember if it was done at the same time as the rear. He installed a roll cage, and extended it to the front of the car. The strut towers were replaced with round tubing and coil-overs (possibly Mustang II front suspension?). He used little skinny front tires (remember, Pro-Street was big news in the 80's). All of this made room for the 454 big block Chevy engine, complete with his trusty old 6-71 blower. Just for giggles he also made a tilt front end using the stock sheetmetal.

 

It was at about this time that I moved away from Panama City Beach to return to college. I visited once after the car was back on the road with fat tires. I was only able to stop by and visit Frank for a short time. He didn't give me a ride in the car (I think it may have been raining). But I did see some big, fat, long, squigly black marks about a block from his house. I can only imagine how awesome that car must have been.

 

I got married in late 1991, my wife and I visited Panama City Beach (early 1992, I think) so I could introduce her to my old beach-bum friends... first stop was Frank's house. I rang the doorbell and Frank's long time girlfriend answered the door. When I asked her "Is Frank around?" she burst into tears and said "Frank is dead". He had died from a heart attack only a week or two earlier. I've thought about Frank and his old Pro-Street Z-car often over the years... It's hard to believe it has been well over 10 years since his death. I sure do miss the ol' guy... I sincerely hope that he was able to achieve his goals with that little Z-car before he died. Working on that car seemed to make him happy....... well, when he wasn't cussing at it and throwing wrenches across the garage!

 

 

So anyway, do any of you remember Frank? Do any of you know what happened to his car? I don't have any pictures of it... but it was easy to identify back then. It was the only white, Pro-Street, Blown, Big Block, 280ZX with pink (yes, pink) engine accents, that I have ever seen. I think Frank's son was in the Navy and stationed in Pensacola when Frank died. So the car probably spent some time in Pensacola during the early 90's.

 

Wow!!! Sorry this ended up being so long!!!! Don't worry if you skipped my ramblings... I'll understand

[Mike kZ]

Sad story, did you try a site like this: http://www.peoplefinders.com/?from=googs2338346&gclid=CIHj1ILRhYcCFRxGUAoduwr3cA to find his son?

[YellowFever]

Sad story, did you try a site like this: [url=http://www.peoplefinders.com/?from=googs2338346&gclid=CIHj1ILRhYcCFRxGUAoduwr3cA]http://www.peoplefinders.com/?from=googs2338346&gclid=CIHj1ILRhYcCFRxGUAoduwr3cA[/url'] to find his son?

 

Cool site... looks like Frank's son was named Michael. Sounds familiar, but with my lousy memory I can't be certain.