Turbo Tune? Jim D'Allesandro? Whatever happened to both of these guys?

[VETKILR]

Watching an old 1990 GS Nationals dvd with all the old big T/R players like Kenny D and all of them. Whatever happened to all of them? I remember seeing a post a while back about them but i cant find it?? Anyone???

 

[JOHNDEEREGN]

Watching an old 1990 GS Nationals dvd with all the old big T/R players like Kenny D and all of them. Whatever happened to all of them? I remember seeing a post a while back about them but i cant find it?? Anyone???

I saw Kenny D in the tent of the Gallina/Freeman car at the Nats this year in BG. He was involved with the car...

Maybe some Big Timers will chime in..

 

[Dennis Kirban]

kirban 2 cents worth

As per you questions....

Turbo Tune if you are referring to the company that was in NJ years ago he went to Florida and is with I think the Diablo computer company as I have run into him at Ford events several years ago.

The turbo tune company in NC I think he recently passed away.

Jim had a shop near Atco race track a hot shot in his day.....we used to sell to him.....last I heard he also was in the Florida area again that was several years ago...also in Florida is Fred Vetter original owner of Dynotech that used to be in NJ as well.

kirban

Again some of my info stated above is 4-5 years old.

 

[troGNman]

Here's an old write-up on Fred Vetter's white car. This story was taken from an obscure magazine called Street & Strip Supercar dated October '88. It was an offshoot of the fabled Cars Illustrated. If you look closely, the color pic shows Jimmy D' at the wheel. This is back when Fred had the shop in Manville, NJ and his local track was E-Town Raceway Park.

Enjoy!

 

[Dennis Kirban]

kirban 2 cents worth

More memories on Dynotech....

My son did some of the paint work on that white car of his....I remember he did take it to florida and someone down their sold it I believe thru ebay maybe 1-2 yeas ago....


I bought a few cars from Fred over the years from his Manville shop....also he worked on my original GN as I got one of the very first sets of the M & A Casting aluminum heads....my car back then was the test bed for several different products from various companies....one reason it blew an engine!

Fun times back then.....

As we all know hobbies change.....we all get a little older......

kirban

On a similar related track.....I remember also in NJ their was a shop that was connected with Burt Reynolds that was building bandit TA's......sometime around that same time period....

 

[troGNman]

OK, some more pics from the same magazine as above. The first pic shows an Eastern Performance backed GN. John Seneca had a stout WE-4 from that shop in PA.

Pic 2 in the lower RH corner shows my friend Paul LaCroix from Piscataway, NJ and GNX #065 which he bought new just a few months before the event.
I still run into Paul at car shows and he still has the X.

Pic 3 is misleading, it mis-states the guy next to Buddy Cox. The caption reads Joe Cieri, but it shows Bob McGinley who was real tight with Jimmy D' at the time. Bob's GN was pretty sharp at the time as he ran Ronal R-7 rims.... something you'd see on high-end european cars in the day.

 

[Buicksx2]

Ahhhh the memories of the late 80's. I remember fred and jim from the many grand national showdowns and the grand nationa verses mustang events Etown would hold.

I remember I beat fred in a GN showdown round one year and went to his shop when it was in the garage of his house in Manville. I bought his mass air flow pipe that had bent blades near the end near the turbo, he told me his pipe "bends" the air before it hits the turbo and would help with spool

Ahhh the stories some shops in NJ would tell ya.

I remember jim's white car as well as when he drove the car that was sponsored by Bowling Green Customs and when he hit the wall at Etown during a GN vs Mustang event........thankfully he wasn't hurt.

Ahhh the days 20 years ago at Etown when the staging lanes were filled with a sea of black GN and TRs. I went to Etown last night to watch a friend run and there were only two TR's there.

 

[TurboRegal84]

Jim D'Alessandro is still in the Atco NJ area and he has some health problems. Does not own a shop but it still involved with the auto repair end of the business. (Non-Buick)

 

[VETKILR]

Thanks guys cool stuff!

 

[benoitthegr8]

Growing up two towns over from E-Town NJ, I remember back in the late 80's and early 90's seeing GN's everywhere... I purchased my first one in 93 and quickly found out that to insure one of those cars came at a premium, they were dangerously fast and also commonly stolen... My insurance was around $1200.00 every 6 months... I cannot believe I paid that kind of money back then, especially considering that now I have 2 TR,a 4WD and home owners insurance full coverage for 1/2 as much.

 

[GNBRETT]

Those are some great pix.

 

[SGRIM]

Here's an old write-up on Fred Vetter's white car. This story was taken from an obscure magazine called Street & Strip Supercar dated October '88. It was an offshoot of the fabled Cars Illustrated. If you look closely, the color pic shows Jimmy D' at the wheel. This is back when Fred had the shop in Manville, NJ and his local track was E-Town Raceway Park.

Enjoy!

I think I own one of the cars in the article:biggrin: At least it is one of Vetters personal White T's!

 

[Dennis Kirban]

kirban 2 cents worth

Vetter only had one personal white turbo car from what I recall bought it brand new lo miles....think it had blue interior...

In looking back at least all of us reading this our memories are still in good working order......

I remember at one buick event my buddy had his turbo car stolen rite out of the parking lot....it was the time he took his father the first time to the event and it was one of my old cars....not a great welcome...

Afterall, those events attracted alot of turbo cars...also told the thieves where they would all be......like being in a supermarket with so many to choose from....

kirban

Part of the history..

 

[Buicksx2]

Those old Buick events at Etown were great and would be great to have a turnout like that again but I think that is just wishfull thinking as the sheer numbers of TRs just aren't there as they were 20 years ago.

If it wasn't for Buick weekend I would have never found the sweet white limited I bought from Dennis back in 1994 for a helluva price. I saw that car on Dennis' table on a Saturday and bought it on Monday and haven't looked back, left it pure stock with the original tires on it still with 67K on it now.

Ahhhh the good ole Buick days.

 

[TWIN86GNS]

I think that is just wishfull thinking as the sheer numbers of TRs just aren't there as they were 20 years ago.

Ahhhh the good ole Buick days.

Rich,

That is probably because Grumpy has parted so many of them out!!

Even up here in Ontario we used to have a LOT of GN's and T's that would make it to the track on a regular basis, but not now.

 

[Dennis Kirban]

kirban 2 cents worth

slghtly off the NJ scene.....the twobig events we did in 1990-91 at the air base...featured several hundred turbo regals one year prototype syclone....had avc guys come and drop in 8 GNX dashes in customers cars....

buddy cox with the first tubbed GNX was on hand also.... how many of you were there then?

Base is now completely gone old folks home and new holiday inn sit on the property.....

no way to turn the clocks back....memories...


kirban

 

[toofastforyou]

I was among Fred Vetter's oldest customers, back when he started and operated Dynotech from a garage under his personal home in Belle Mead, NJ. Later, he moved the business to Manville, NJ for several few years. After that Dynotech was sold to Eric Schertz who was his "transmission guy" back then. Eric lived in Long Island NY, and had to travel back and forth to NJ every day which he did for a few years before deciding to move the whole Dynotech business to Long Island, closer to his home in a building he bought and renovated for that purpose. And then...we're all aware of Dynotech's sad ending with the passing of Eric in May '08...:frown:
As for Jim D'Alessandro, he was from Marlton or Cherry Hill NJ, (not sure which) and did some work on my car for a while from his shop in Atco NJ, (a short distance from the Atco race track), but one day, I heard that his shop ("1/4 Mile Performance") closed and everyone I spoke to about him has never heard from him since...strange....
All I know about Turbo Tune is it was a small company located in Hainesport NJ and was run by Pat Stajdel and Bill Geiger. They were featured in the "Buick Grand National" video series where they performed some modifications on a GN, followed by some testing at the track...but I never met them personally. The Turbo Tune shop eventually closed (not sure which date...) and I've always wondered and what happened with these guys afterwards...

Claude. :smile:

 

[Buicksx2]

It must be a NJ shop thing they are active for a few years then just fade away but we'll always have good memories of what was.

 

[VETKILR]

YouTube - Buick GN V6 1987 Turbo Tune

Link about turbo tune!

 

[SGRIM]

kirban 2 cents worth

Vetter only had one personal white turbo car from what I recall bought it brand new lo miles....think it had blue interior...

In looking back at least all of us reading this our memories are still in good working order......

I remember at one buick event my buddy had his turbo car stolen rite out of the parking lot....it was the time he took his father the first time to the event and it was one of my old cars....not a great welcome...

Afterall, those events attracted alot of turbo cars...also told the thieves where they would all be......like being in a supermarket with so many to choose from....

kirban

Part of the history..

That would be the one, with a Molly signature on the dash. Only has 17k on it:biggrin: It is in the collection:wink: