RIP Lil' John Buttera

[Garage Dog 65]

There were several of Lil's cars (and a bike) that really stuck out to me over the years. One was the 1st gen Nova with the (then) brand new C4 vette suspension - man I thought that was an unbelievable piece of work - and displayed with his son Chris's Camaro with the fuel injected motor really struck a cord with me. (I still have that Hot Rod magazine) He brought them to the Indy Goodguys that year - in a billeted out custom Goodyear semi that he did for the Goodyear Tire corp. My friends and I looked over those cars for hours ! Then there was the white Willie's with the westlake v8 in the front - and a Porsche transaxle in the back and all the custom billet stuff again (wow, I’m thinking that's where my sickness started...) I got to meet him a couple times at the Indy 500 in the 70's and 80's as a track rat. He was always there helping support the normally aspirated v8 or v6 teams qualify for the race. I always thought it was neat that the real car builder/racers knew the guy and congregated around him - while all the PR Machine type people never seemed to notice someone like Lil' or his efforts - their huge loss huh ! The guy was a legend of our time and we certainly owe him our thanks for guiding our hobby to new levels. RIP