Old Skool Big Dogs like Jim D'Alessandro, Pete Barton...

[Joe Spool]

Hi All,

I used to be in the Buick scene back in the late 80's and early 90's with my Turbo Buicks, but got out of it for a while. Starting to get back into a little now, and have been checking out websites for good parts combos (I got my 87 T down to 12.1's back in '95, but now looking for quicker of course).

Anyway, as I've been cruzin websites, I was noticing I dont hear much about the guys that were the heavy hitters back when I was into it, like Jim D'Alessandro, Pete Barton, Buddy Cox, guys like that. What happened to all those guys? I've read some things about D'Alessandro like he was kinda shady, is that true? And who's the new heavy hitters nowadays?

Jim

 

[86brick]

Jimmy D. was/is a shady character from what I heard and I think him and his shop 1/4 Mile Performance are done (as far as I know) and as such he's no longer around... Pete at ANS is still around, but I haven't seen or heard about his car in a long time so I'll ASSume it's sold.... Buddy Cox (another guy I haven't heard about in quite some time) so I'll ASSume he's out of the Buick game....

As far as Heavy hitters now the #1 guy is Bill Anderson here's a look at his car... It is the Quickest/Fastest single turbo Buick in all the land....

http://www.anderson-performance.com/Racecar Info.htm

There are several other guys I can mention, but you should've heard about John Gallina with his SS/DX Turbo Buick (fastest car in NHRA Super Stock and the first guy to break the 7 second barrier in SS).... Here's his website....

www.fastbuicks.com

There are several other names I can throw out there that would be considered heavy hitters or Big Dogs in the Buick community.... One other name that really comes to mind is Richie Kibler because he has been doing pretty awesome lately racing HU in a few of the 1/8th mile classes like Outlaw Pure Street and Limited Street....

Hopefully you remember LC (Lawrence Conley) and Kenny Duttweiler??? They no longer race Buicks but they are both still very involved in this community building/tuning cars and Kenny was involved with the R&D of the new TA Performance www.taperformance.com aluminum Buick V6 block....

I'm rambling and it would take me a LONG time to catch you up on this Buick stuff so use the search feature on this website (yes it can get you caught up) and check out www.gnttype.org

HTH and Welcome

 

[ssleeper94]

Pete Barton is still around building some killer motors. www.ansperformance.net

 

[gn85]

Originally posted by ssleeper94
Pete Barton is still around building some killer motors. www.ansperformance.net

He kills them as best he can! He kills them, just to watch them die!

 

[Scott231]

Pete sold his car a few years ago. It is now a dark shade of Blue and I've seen Pete assisting the new owner at the track at least once (the last Buicks at Bristol event that Jim Haas organized). In addition to the customer cars you can see on his website (including Jim Lauer's Grey "Eights" car), Pete was very instrumental in building Tony Occhipinti's new ride that will be terrorzing TSM next year with its low-low 9 second passes...on a 109 block.

And yes, many of the other heavy-hitters are also defunct on the TR racing scene. Those who have sold their fast TR ride (not noted above) include: Alan Witter, Lou Czarnota, Clint Blackwell (ex-Smith bros car), Barry Walker, Ron Fruchey, Lance Ward, Jack Pendzimas, Tom Lorek and several others I can not think of right now.

"Heavy Hitters" from the old days still include Ricardo LaCosta (think flying fiberglass hood), Bob Armstrong (the other ex-Smith bros car), Kent Rudbeck (the Rosewood colored car) , Bob "Six Shooter" Peterson, Joe "PTE, not-PTE, PTE again" Lubrant and a guy named Red.

Then there are Ken Seggie and Mike Licht, who have sold a ride, bought another, sold it...

Alright, I've date myself enough. I apoligize for leaving out any "heavy hitters" that should have been named.

 

[top gun]

Lets not leave out Dan Strezo who was the master mind behind the power plants of the " Old School Big Dogs" like Pete Barton, Lawrence Conley, Alan Witter, Jack Pendzimas and Bob Peterson.

Dan is at the top of the stage 2 game and now "the race for the 8's with a stock block".

 

[SPOOLN]

I really enjoy watching the Dan White racing guys, they are also running really fast.

 

[top gun]

Originally posted by SPOOLN
I really enjoy watching the Dan White racing guys, they are also running really fast.

The Old School Big Dogs were running quicker times 10 years ago.

 

[GNVAIR]

I have some vintage articles scanned in on my web shots site. One of the articles is from 1990 featuring Kenny D., Jim D'Alessandro, Buddy Cox and Pat Stajel of Turbo Tune.
I unfortunately cant access web shots from here.

 

[toofastforyou]

Whatever happened to Pat Stajdel, from ''TurboTune''...?

GNVAIR, whatever happened to Pat Stajdel of TurboTune?...I still have some old cassettes from 1989 ( approximately) where he was the master technician who kept doing some changes, one by on, on a '87 GN until the car ran in the 12's... I still watch them once in a while, just for fun because some of the modifications he did back then ( which were ok at the time) are obsolete now...

Claude

P.S: As for D'Alessandro, I heard he was doing time for getting caught up in a stolen car thing...I'm not judging him...It can happen to anyone to do some mistakes in their lives...
He used to do some work for me back in '90, and at the time, he was THE guy to see to make your GN go fast...

 

[GNVAIR]

Claude,
IIRC, Pat's dad was the brains behind the operation AND the reason why the car was so fast. The problem was Pat was ripping people off. Now, granted, this is all local rumor so take it for what its worth. I did not know Pat personally nor had I ever met him. Pat had a gf who was a dancer and they developed a little chemical dependency problem. Pat started selling things (that didnt exist) to people around the country. I remember one such banner back in the mid 90's (circa 1994) that a guy made and sent around through the Buick clubs or directly to other Buick vendors accussing Pat of selling him a motor for thousands of dollars that the guy never received. I heard this wasnt the only instance. Pat just disappeared. Various rumors of what actually happened to him. Regardless, I remember seeing the Turbo Tune car at Atco back in 1989 and being amazed at the craftsmanship under the hood. It was amazing and the first time that I saw anything like that (twin turbo, custom intake, HUGE intercooler (it went from low beam to low beam and to this day is the largest in sheer size I have ever seen fitted to a Buick). Rumor had it that the motor was an ex Indy motor and by the way it sounded I can believe it. Car was running 10.00's @140+ back then.
Jim D'Alessandro is still around from what I hear, he just doesnt advertise and keeps a low profile.

addendum:
When I was a senior in high school (1990) I worked in a super market after school as a cashier and Jim used to come in on his way home from the shop. Some nights he was have the roll back with the White car on it. Pretty neat stuff.

 

[toofastforyou]

Bill Geiger...???

''GNVAIR'' I remember that Pat Stajdel seemed to be the owner of Turbo Tune, but the master technician who was actually seen working on the GN, was Bill Geiger...I wonder what did he became?? I never met him, but he seemed to me like a good guy...
Claude

P.S: In your last post (just before this one...), you began by saying ''IIRC''...what does that mean?...

 

[evil_gn]

Re: Whatever happened to Pat Stajdel, from ''TurboTune''...?

Originally posted by toofastforyou
GNVAIR, whatever happened to Pat Stajdel of TurboTune?...I still have some old cassettes from 1989 ( approximately) where he was the master technician who kept doing some changes, one by on, on a '87 GN until the car ran in the 12's... I still watch them once in a while, just for fun because some of the modifications he did back then ( which were ok at the time) are obsolete now...

Claude

P.S: As for D'Alessandro, I heard he was doing time for getting caught up in a stolen car thing...I'm not judging him...It can happen to anyone to do some mistakes in their lives...
He used to do some work for me back in '90, and at the time, he was THE guy to see to make your GN go fast...

i have all of those tapes too. i think creative video images did them back in the day.


their 12 sec buildup was kinda nuts watching it now.

 

[toofastforyou]

evil_gn, you're right...about Creative Video Images...As for Bill Geiger, anyone knows where is he now?...
Claude

 

[THE ARS]

If I Recall Correctly.

 

[GNVAIR]

Claude: IIRC = If I Remember Correctly
Turbo Tune was pretty famous (or infamous) around here.
Their shop was based out of Hainesport which is right next to Mt Holly where Bob Simms (and Keith Mease) were.
The Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey area were definitely a hot bed for Turbo Buick activity in the late 80's through the mid 90's with people such as Jim D, Pat S as well as guys like Dale Cherry, Danny Smith and others building some VERY fast cars.
We also seemed to be a hot area for 5.0 Mustang racers such as Nitrous Pete Misinsky, Craig Radovich, Dwayne Guttrige, Jimmy LaRocca, Jon Jon Yate, etc.
There was a local spot in Marlton (the town where I grew up in) where the people would meet up late at night. There were always a few 11 second cars back in 1989-91 (which were unheard of at that time. The first time I ever saw a super charger on a Mustang was around this time too.
I definitely have many fond memories of the then "new" muscle cars from that time period. Maybe that is why I have the GN and a 5.0 Mustang as they were the ones that made the biggest impression on me.

 

[hurstbuick]

The old guys of Buick Turbo Fame

I think I can Help out a little for all you Buick Turbo guys you need to go to the "Buick Grand National Racing Association" web site athttp://www.bgnra.org you will see at the bottom of the page several bottons click on the Multimedia button and you can see many of the cars and driver you all have been talking about all in video, You can also click on the Image button and see some of the cars. Now please take a moment and go back to the main HOME page a take a minute to fill out the Questionaire and submit it so I can get you in the data base for our up coming DVD video of Fast Buick Turbo Cars from the past 14 years in that video you will see alot of the very cars all you guys have been talking about. Won't forget to put in your Email address so I can sent you up dates from time to time.
Hope this helps out...

Steve Hurst- President, BGNRA
Email:
hurstbuick@aol.com

 

[FlyinGN]

FYI- Pat is now making parts for Mustangs. Its true. hes still into cars, just into TR's anymore.

 

[toofastforyou]

Where is Bill Geiger now?....

Thanks for your replies....but does someone know whatever happened to pat Stajdel's mechanic Bill Geiger who was seen working on the cars in the videos??? That's what I wanted to know...
thanks!
Claude