Not sure this is worth posting but I think it's cool. Willys, gassers, ranchero etc.

Sometimes the internet just amazes me. Anyone can be an amatuer historian or detective now.

This started with a post asking if anyone had photos of Ford Ranchero drag cars (g***ers). I had a couple but wanted to find more. Did a search and came up with an obituary for James Butler.

James (Jim) Butler AKA “Mr. Ford”
World Champion Racing Legend

James p***ed away on November 27, 2006 at the age of 84. James was
born in Ft. Cobb Ok November 10, 1922 to Robert and Bertha Reed
Butler. He is survived by one brother, Lewis Butler of Levelland
Texas, two daughters, Evelyn Butler Cunningham and husband Bill
Cunningham of Ft. Stockton Tx, Patsy Butler Harris of Fredericksburg,
Tx, five grandchildren, David Harris of San Saba Tx, Ronald Harris
of Brownwood Tx, Vickie Bradshaw, Beverly Ezell of Ft. Stockton Tx,
Amy Lightner of Monahans, 13 great grandchildren, and 1 great great
grandson. James was preceded in death by his wife Inez Hallford
Butler; parents Robert and Bertha Butler, five brothers, Roy Dell,
Glen, Melvin, Floyd, and Skinner; two sisters, Arlie and Vida.
James and his wife Inez lived in Morton Tx until 1970 where they
owned a garage and wrecking yard. James and Inez moved to Graham
Texas in 1970, then in 1990 they moved to Lake Brownwood, and their
final move came in 1999 to Ft. Stockton Tx.
James had a great love for fast cars, and built and raced many hot
rods in his lifetime. James was widely known as “Mr. Ford.” James
and Inez began their racing career on the circle track circuit in

1950. In the late 1950’s James began drag racing on the quarter and
eighth mile tracks. Two of James most famous race cars were Rowdy
Willy which won the Top Ten In The World honors in 1960. James sold
Rowdy Willy to the Charioteer Drag Racing club in Hobbs NM and the
driver for the Charioteers was Lee Proctor of Odessa. Rowdy was in a
featured article in the fall 2004 edition of the G***er magazine.
The last hot rod was a little Falcon Ranchero powered by a 289 cubic
inch engine. James won the World Championship at Green Valley in
1966 with Remember Me. Bryan Teal was the only man James felt was
worthy of driving his race cars, and was the official driver of
Remember Me. ****ey Harrell known as “Mr. Chevrolet” drove Remember
Me once on the eight mile track in Illinois, winning the
championship. Both Rowdy Willy and Remember Me held many world
records. In 1963 James built a 1963 Ford Falcon Sprint “Lil Red”
for the Morton Ford House which was never outrun .... until James
outrun it with his 1963 Ford Falcon 289 cubic inch rod “Remember
Me.” The most famous winning races were when James won the
Nationals with “Rowdy Willy” and also with his tow car, a 1958
Ford station wagon. Two years later he won the Nationals with
“Rowdy Willy” and also with his tow car a 1960 Ford Starliner.
When James lost his eyesight and retired from drag racing, he
began a new career of working on boat motors, this career lasted
for 45 years. There was never anything he could not do when he
had an engine to work on and tools in his hand until the day he
p***ed from this earth. I’m sure daddy rode a hot rod to heaven.
Visitation will be in Morton Tx Wednesday at the Head Memorial
Funeral Home 309 N.E. 8th Street from 10 - 9. Graveside services
for James Clinton Butler will be in the Enochs cemetery Thursday
November 30 at 10:30 am.
Pall bearers: David Harris Ethan Ezell, Ronald Harris Brandon
Ezell, Chance Helmers, Billy Bradshaw, Tyler Lightner. Honorary
Pall Bearers: Bryan Teal, James Swafford, Joe McCrorey, Buford
Hemphill, Lee Proctor and Raymond Martin.

Now James was obviously a Ford guy, from West Texas and New Mexico like me and had some great cars. Now I HAD to find a pic of that Ranchero.
I already had one of the Rowdy Willys scanned from an old magazine.

That was a few weeks ago.

Fast forward to this morning. I'm checking posts and see where yesterday the post about MoKan Dragway Back in the Day showed back up. It was from last May but Steve DeTar posted a correction about an old A/FX build.
Now I recognized DeTar as the builder of the Kansas Badman Ford Falcon early funny car. That's cool enough... but... there in his post shows up the name JIM BUTLER.

I go back to the original part of the post and guess what I find? A clear photo of the slickest little Ranchero "g***er" with Jim Butler, Morton Texas lettered on the side!

So there you go. Sure wish I could have met the man and heard his stories.
He could obviously build a bad hot rod.

Dan

 

Very interesting...Thanks for sharing...

 

Well. I just got back from getting my cup of Joe. Man, that is alot of reading I still have to read it. Have to finish the coffee 1st. KNUX!

 

this is a great story i was contacted months ago about my old willys g***er i have and was told it was the rowdy willy so i tracked down jim butlers daughter patsy and we emailed back and fourth and i found out alot about jim in doing so.

one story that i liked was jim lost his eyesight forcing him to stop racing but he didnt stop working on cars or building engines people would ask him to tune their cars in person or call him and rev their race car over the phone and jim could tell them what was needed or what was wrong just by the sound of it. alot of great old storys

 

I just got an email from Billy ? (don't know his last name or member name ) with some more about Jim Butler. AND two great photos including one of Mr Butler. Thanks, Billy. He said I could post them.
Dan

 

And another just found on a different Falcon round body site.

 

bad ***! nice wheel wells too. thanks for posting

 

Is tha that your ranchero wants to be when it grows up ricky?


jerry

 

Sure would be cool to know what the recipe was for those cars. I noticed the pic of that Ranchero with "Stock bore and stroke" for that little 289. Jim didn't look to be a lightweight man either. I wonder where those cars are now.

 

yes.

 

Hi, thanks for the interest in my Grandfather James Butler. I noticed you were wondering about the motor. My Uncle has a 289 in a pinto built like my grandfather use to run in Ft. Stockton. I will see if I can get some specs for you on the motor.

 

The 63 ranchero was sold and was raced on circle tracks were it was lost in a wreak.

 

what the hell? raced in circle tracks? crazy!

 

<Editted. Thanks for correcting me SixFive>

There is a guy selling a tribute to James Butler's Ranchero on that auction site. Kinda neat.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ford...4091843?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item43aa8bb6c3

 

I don't think he's claiming that at all, seeing as the first line of the ad states it was built as a tribute. In fact it says about 1/2 dozen times in the ebay listing that it isn't the real one.

 

The internet is pretty cool. I was just looking for information on a guy my grandpa use do work for. It was james or "jim" butler. my grandpa worked for james butler. He mentioned to me about a 41 model willys named rowdy willys, and a red falcoln with a 289ci v8. He also mentioned the spring nationals at green valley raceway.

My grandpa is the one who got me interested in hot rods, he built a beautiful 23 T roadster while also battling some serious cancer. He probably has some first hand stories about jim butler, and possibly some more knowledge about the cars.

 

my grandpa might know some info about the car.( he worked for jim butler). I could ask him if you were still interested.

 

Easy to tell with Rowdy Willy's unique back gl***. Most g***ers were the original split small window.
Seen the car tons when I was a young punk living near Hobbs. Glenn Powell was my neighbor and at the time belonged to the Charioteers Car Club. Glenn also raced a falcon with 289 later when working for the Ford house in Lovington, NM.

 

Realize this is many years ago. I just happened on this page as my grandson asked about my early years. I worked for 2 years with Glen Powell at the Ford dealership. Did some work with him on Rowdy Willy. Did get to fire up and drive a short distance as they were checking tracking on a different rear end one time. By the way. Glenn pulled that 289 out of the Falcon and put into a rail. It was a B Experimental Gas Dragster and won his cl*** in Winter Nationals in 1965.

 

I wrote an article on Rowdy Willy and James Butler in 2004. I actually saw the car run in 1959-1960. I also interviewed Mr. Butler for the article. I always wanted to find out what happened to Rowdy Willy after the Charioteers owned it. I can provide a copy of the article and I believe I could identify the car. Please contact me if you are interested at roadrunnerengr@msn.com . I've uploaded a pictures of Rowdy in Amarillo..

 

Hi! I just found this page. And Article on James Butler I am from Morton Texas an new the family
Spent many hours out at there house as they had two beautiful daughters patsy is my age
So I spent lots of time out there and sunday at the drags . I saw James or Mr Butler win a race one time on 7 yes! 7 Cylinders they blew a hole in a piston. So in the pit he drop the pan and pulled piston Rod and all out of Remember Me. And ran the race and won! I have many stories
But better quit here

 

@Lem Chesher,

I enjoyed your story. That’s pretty impressive to have won on 7 Cylinders. I bet that his compe***ion didn’t know that. I would like to hear some more stories. Did you ever see him race his Willys Coupe “Rowdy Willy”? I have read that Inez was a very good mechanic also and sometimes worked on the race cars.

 

Inez was very good I am not sure but I think she did all the head work as in porting and polishing.
When she said Patsy was to be in from a date at a certain time she meant it! not one minute late.
No! I am not sure I saw James race Rowdy Willy but saw him and Inez work on it. I remember it when it was Red , purple, and white . I did see Jame race little Red and Remember Me. But mostly Bryan Teal.
I am an old guy now and working an AV8 please note the photo on my profile here.
I well call it Remember Me in honor of the Butler family where I grew up and all the good times