The engine was now rated at 380 hp, which was probably a public relations change more than anything else considering the 300D had a bit less cam although compression was raised slightly. Inside, Chrysler had adopted a softer crankshaft in a futile effort to cut costs, but whatever savings they managed were immediately lost with the optional Bendix fuel injection system fiasco. Allegedly fitted to some 35 Chryslers products, 21 of which were 300Ds, (all automatic transmission cars) the new computerized 390 hp EFI engine ran poorly and was the subject of a recall. All such equipped cars were to be refitted with carburetors. Rumor  has it that a fuel injected D escaped intact and was under restoration  as early as 1982, but so far it hasn't officially surfaced. 11 of the original fuel injected 300Ds have been found, 1 of which has been junked. 

The microfilm shows 19 coupes and two convertibles with fuel injection, and it isn't really clear that two convertibles were actually produced. It is clear that one white convertible was produced, LC4 1550, sold by Royal Chrysler in Maryland for $7262.45, quite a price for the day. The car was later damaged in an accident, repainted red, and resold. It has not resurfaced. 

The 3 speed manual transmission was optional again in 1958, and records show a whopping 2 300Ds were so equipped.  Both are accounted for, if indeed two were all they made. The manual transmission  would be discontinued after 1958, for lack of interest I suppose, and would not surface again until it became a floor shift option on the 1961 300G. 

One of the two cars equipped with the manual transmission  is pictured on the first page of the gallery. Unrestored but solid looking, this is LC1515, a car driven at Daytona Beach in 1958 by Dr. Herbert Magee Jr. Dr. Magee won the Standing Start Mile, class 7, with a speed of 87.485 mph. Keep in mind this is an average speed, not trap speed. In the Flying Mile, he hit 141.06 with a peak of 144 in the stretch. The second owner of the car was able to do the quarter mile in 14.90 at 106 mph. A California car from the start, the car is now in the hands of a 300 Club member and is about to undergo restoration. George Riehl informs me that club member Ken Mack also has one, so maybe that's it for the production run.

6 colors were now offered for the 300D, while the interior continued in standard tan. The leather is a bit different from the 300C, by the way. Sales dropped to 809 units, probably due to the lackluster way in which the car was simply carried over from 1957 and the quality control problems that had begun a year earlier. Word travels fast when your cars start falling apart in the middle of the street. 

At Bonneville, Norm Thatcher pushed a 300D to 156 mph. Brewster Shaw won the standing start mile at Daytona, and Gregg Ziegler pushed Dick Dice's car to 138 mph, so the D ran pretty well; fast enough to get you to work on time, anyway, as long as the engine had carburetors. The 300D is very collectible because of its low production numbers and the fact that it is the last of the hemi engine powered 300s.