Fiat Topolino Nostalgic Race Car, I Couldn't Resist

I Saw It And Thought It Was Way Cool. A Friend Of Mine Had It About 2 Miles From Me. It Was Last Raced In Union Grove Wisconsin In 1972 A/A Cl***. It Was Also Raced In Northern Illinois. It Had A 283 Bored To A 301 With A Three Speed. The Ch***is Was Built By A Guy Named Lil' John ****era @ R&B Ch***is in Kenosh,WI. The Guy That Raced It Was From Berlin, WI. I Am Still Trying To Get Some History And Time Slips Etc. I Would Really Like To Go Do Some Nostalgic Racing With It. It was the Indoor Show Car ***ociation show circuit from 1972-74.

If Anyone Has Info On This Car, Please Let Me Know!

 

I love it! You don't really want it. Let help you out.

 

the frame builder might be Little John ****era. He worked out of Keno for awhile.

 

That's probably, "Little John ****era",...are you the reason the Ebay auction was pulled at the last minute?...I was watching that...

 

Not exactly. I was watching it to! The seller never sold anything big on ebay before. The high bidder had met reserve and later backed out because his dad got cancer and he didn't have the money any more. What ever! Then he had offers to buy it from Nigeria, and he got scared and ended it. That's when I had a chance to buy it. I didn't the first time or second time, but after thinking more about it i called him back and dropped the hammer. He had offers to buy it from all over the place, but didn't want to deal with the h***le of wire transfers, shipping etc. It helps that I know him and he is very close by.

 

I Like It!!

 

I was watching the car also, it is sweet.

 

Nice score! btw isn't that Janice Joplin in that one photo?
I knew she wasn't dead!

 

I'll take it!!

 

This might give you a bit of background on the man himself...http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=179757

A legend, to say the least....he was involved in various forms of racing & ch***is building, including drag racing & Indy-style USAC, & also went on to build some very well known cars in the late '70s & early '80s...featured in Hot Rod at least 3 times that I can recall. He's worked with guys like Eric Vaughn, Steve Davis, & so on.

Some people refer to him as the father of billet....which is kind of a misnomer. I would say rather that he was the father of machining self-designed, one-off parts out of aluminum for some of these custom car builds, intended for street use.....which other, lesser, people thought were cool, and copied the concept....and later it was adapted for m*** production.

When asked (by Gray Baskerville, if I recall) how he made a rather neat rear view mirror for one of his builds, he merely said, "You just take a piece of aluminum and cut away everything that doesn't look like a rear-view mirror."

If that's true about your car, it's a small piece of history...VERY cool.

And yes, he came from Kenosha.

 

Awesome. Yeap John Butera is correct. Built lots of cool stuff. He is in bad health rite now I heard.

 

In late 1968 Don Ewald contacted John Butera in Wisconsin and told him he wanted a "big brother" to the Jr. Fuel car he'd built for fellow Californian, Richard Lockerman. It was a magnificent piece but too small and light for Top Fuel. Butera informed Ewald he already had it - a car he had built for himself but was not going to race. He was relocating to SoCal and would deliver it when he came out. In February of 1969 the car was delivered to Ewald in Long Beach and his expectations were met in spades. It was virtually complete less engine (below). The price tag: $1,750!

By the sounds of this it looks like he moved to Cali in 69

 

wasn't lil johns thing in wisconsin called R&B race cars or something.....who knows , he may even chime in on this ..... brandon

 

Dude, you hafta bring it to the hamb drags this year.

 

Dang, I should have figured I would kill your thread......

 

I like your way of thinking. I can post a bunch of pictures. I just got it situated tonight and looked it over closely. I can't see any stamping or writing on the frame, but is very well built with really nice welds. The m/t tires are still wearing the stickers on them! The seat belts look military and are dated 1957. The parachute is in fair shape and is dated 1966. The car was driven by Mike G. He is formerly from Berlin WI, but now lives in Coloma, WI. The car ran 10.17 e.t. @ 147 mph in 1971.
This thing is way cool!

 

32 for me, has the aluminum smallblock,****era built for an Indy car,in his Pick-up.

 

Hi, yes that is where the chute goes. I did find some more info also. The car ran a 283 bored to a 301 and had a 3 speed transmission. the gears are 4.56 in a 55-64 chevy rear end. They would start in 2nd and only shift once. The rear brakes are lever operated with 4 piston airheart calipers. I also got the zoomies.

 

I was watching this auction as well..cool car..
should be a fun project.

 

Sweet !!! Love the old lettering .

 

You could probably PM and ask him if he built it. lil' john is his HAMB name. Not sure how is health is these days (anybody?).

 

Neat piece of history... clean it up, put a motor in it... and drag it out to the HAMB Drags this summer.

Sam.

 

Sam, how is the 55 coming?

 

Inlaw...That is soo excellent. I now have Inlaw envy
Thanks for posting!

 

Man that car is sweet, really nice it's still the way it was.

 

I spoke with Mike that raced the car from 1968-1974 and he said the car was built by R&B in Kenosha so I guess Lil' John was involved. It was raced mainly at Great Lakes Raceway aka Union Grove. In 1973 the car was in a indoor show car circuit. It was in New York, Cleveland, Dubuque, and others. The car took third place overall that year for best comp car. I also have a video with over an hour of vintage union grove racing showing this car race along with many others. It is really neat! I will try to post a link to you tube.

 

I just found this website:

http://liljohnsplace.com/

It gives a little history on Lil' John.

 

I just got the video I have to work, and I took these pictures off of it. I hope to also post the video footage of the car. I think these are from 1968 or 1969.

 

R&b race cars is still in Kenosha Wisconsin... Jon ****era was originally from Kenosha. Along with Dennis Rollain who still has the shop and still continues to put out neat stuff. The website for R&B automotive is WWW.RBRACECARS.COM Dennis may have more info and pix too....