Anyone know the story about the racecar, Little Joe at MCACN?

Does anyone know the story on Little Joe that was at this years, MCACN? It couldn't have been in storage for to long. It was in attendance at the GSCA Rocky Mtn Chapter 20th anniversary in 2008.

http://gsxtra.com/albums/2008-08-30_RM_Buick_GS_R80/2008-08-30_RM_Buick_GS 018.html

Tim

 

http://www.v8buick.com/index.php?threads/need-help-with-sloan-docs-deciphering.326682/

 

1 of the Tom Rose cars from Warren Ohio originally. (Great Scat, Tom's Tinker Toy (s), Salvation Jane, Rudy Sims cars & Juan Mo Time, to name a few)
Sold to Mark in the Mid to late 70s (Time questionable).
Tom "Swiss Cheesed" the frame & did some other mods to Lighten the car, when "Built".

 

Interesting read on a very special car.

 

Okay, here's the story on taking the Little Joe car to the MCACN show. I've been wanting to take an old dragcar out there for sometime, so I contacted Bob Ashton who's the promoter of the event and told him what I had. He thought the 70 Buick Stage One would be ideal to have at the event. I thought the same thing, so the decision was made to display it in the Barn Find/Hidden Gem section of the show {I consider it more of a hidden gem than a barn find}.Parts of the paint shows some original and some repaint from long ago, so it's more or less a 10 footer when it comes to the exterior. The biggest job was getting the car out of the backyard garage were I had it stored for the last 8 years. It was behind a metal fence and we had to tow a 55 Chevy farm trunk out of the way and chop down some saplings and cut down shoulder high weeds to get to the garage door, it took us several hours to free the car up, But it was worth it. Taking the car to the Chicago show was a great time spent with my family and I joined the BCA while there and met some of the great people on this board. This trip really got me fired up to start playing around with my Buicks again and next year look for Little Joe and one of my other Buicks to hit the street again. Larry

 

Glad you finally got it out where it can be appreciated! Lots of cool history with that special Buick.

 

Here's an interesting tidbit about the car, Joe Lawton told me that the name 'Little Joe' wasn't put on the car until Feb/March of 1970. The lettering was done in real 14k goldleaf which he said was in 4 inch by 4 inch squares.He told me who the painter was in Warren,Ohio but I forgot his name.Even today after 47 years on the car the gold still has a sparkle to it when the sun's shining on it, I think it's definitely early 70's "way cool"! and I wouldn't change it one bit. Larry

 

I am pretty sure it is the same painting on Gary Paine´s Greatscat from 1968.

 

I think you're right, I'm sure it was done in Warren Ohio by the same guy back then.

 

Yep, Great Scat had the gold leaf too. when we repainted it in 1992 I looked to recreate the gold leaf, wow, costly, so I had gold leaf vinyl made, much more economical and from few feet away you can't tell the difference, by the way the 69 GS convertible called Salvation Jane was also gold leaf.
gary

 

You're right JR, Tom took out weight where ever he could. Scat has swiss cheesed core support, half inner fenders, frame massaged in non critical areas, brake backing plates are drilled,window regulators were drilled,appears that bumpers were also acid dipped, bumper brackets were windowed, the original hood was missing the inner supports(made closing the hood a delicate activity).
gary

 

hey brad,wasnt that the car that beat the pontiac indian at a grude race in bowling green?a seem to remember it was at night,hope another senior member can chime in!!!

 

Hey Gary, is Salvation Jane around?

 

Very cool, glad you and the car we'e there!

 

Hi Jim
I met the previous owner of Jane 7 years ago, Fred Novotny, and bought some leftover parts from him.
After it left him its wheel base was shortened about 14" and turned into a 2 seat 'vert.Don't know its whereabouts.Fred and I still have contact several times a year.He spent the week with me at the GS Nats this past year. By the way, he drove Scat for Tom in the past and loved seeing her again
I'm still trying to find Juan Mo Tyme .
gary

 

There was another grudge match in 1985 at the Mopar Nationals, I'm sure some members of the old Penn-Ohio Chapter remember. Brad??
The Penn-Ohio Charper used to have its annual event at the Len Emmke Buick dealership in Columbus Oh. Then go to National Trails raceway the next day so the GS's could stretch their legs. The Mopars were having their annual meet there the same weekend. We were given a dedicated lane for the Buick guys to run our event in. Some where along the line a Mopar guy asked to have a race mono a mono against the quickest Buick. Thumper was assigned that task. Their candidate was a max wedge 426 dodge. Thumper still had ported KB stage3 iron heads and was running high tens. We didn't pay attention to what the Mopar was running as we were concentrating on our cars.
Thumper lined up for a best of 3, we only need 2 races to show the Mopar boys what a Buick could do, he had me et wise the first race but he got drilled on the tree, the other race Thumper went one of her best times with a 10.82 and she took both ends of the track.
They still welcomed us with open arms and told us to come back again, they were a class group.
Wish we had pics,maybe someone in the Chapter has some.

Sorry I got off track here regarding Joe, but thought maybe another grudge match would of interest.
gary

 

Gary, your right about the way Tom lighten the cars up.The Little Joe car has about the same things done to it as your car has, but in addition it has the front bumper brackets punched full of holes along with the rear bumper and trunklid getting acid-dipped. But the biggest weight savings was the fiberglass frontend he had built for it sometime around 71-72. It consisted of 6 pieces, the 2 fenders,2 inner fenderwells, bumper, and hood- which is really heavy for a glass hood! The inner wells have a huge cutout section, [ I guess for A-arm travel during wheelies?] Mark Busher added the MOON racing gas tank located in the trunk and it runs a stockwidth 12-bolt and extreme offset Cragers instead of a narrowed rearend. Larry

 

Yeah, my brackets have windows in them too, its also a stock width 12 bolt with 8' backspace crager super tricks, still on car if you see pics. Before those he had the regular cragers on front and rear with the rears massaged for a big back space. I have a pic from 1971 with Scat racing a chevelle and the regular cragers were on it then.
Heres another trick I discovered while aligning the front end, the right side wheel was moved rearward,I don't know how, to give more more shallow staging distance before redlighting on the tree. check Joe ,see if its done on it.Or maybe the frame has just been tweaked alot from all the wheelies.
gary