FAMED BUILDER AND CODDINGTON CONTEMPORARY "LIL' JOHN" BUTTERA DEAD AT 67

John Buttera, 67, died March 2 after a long bout with cancer. 

John Buttera, who left his stamp on the drag racing world in the '70s by building a series of winning Funny Cars and dragsters, created some of hot rodding's most beautiful street rods of the '80s and '90s, and built the first billet wheels, died March 2 after a long battle with cancer. He was 67.

Buttera began his career in his native Kenosha, Wisconsin, when he teamed with Dennis Rollain to form R&B Chassis. They fielded a very light unblown fuel dragster, but a chance meeting with Mickey Thompson in the staging lanes at the U.S. Nationals in the late '60s led him to move to Southern California, changing his life forever.

After initially working for Thompson on his Ford-powered Land Speed Record streamliner, he built Thompson's blue Mustang Funny Car in which Danny Ongais dominated the 1969 season. He then opened his own chassis shop in Cerritos, California, where he built a radical streamlined dragster for Barry Setzer.

His talents soon led such customers as Don “the Snake” Prudhomme, Tom “the Mongoose” McEwen, Don Schumacher and Shirley Muldowney to his door for dragsters and Funny Cars. He built Schumacher's '70 Indy-winning Funny Car, the Hot Wheels entries of Prudhomme and McEwen, the national-record-setting Braskett & Burgin Vega and many more.

Dragsters, Funny Cars, street rods, motorcycles and even Indy cars have all felt the touch of Buttera's innovation. Known for his exceptional craftsmanship, Buttera was involved in all areas of hot rodding.

Buttera brought the high-tech, billet era to street rodding and was the first to manufacture his own wheels and independent suspensions from machined aluminum. He also did extensive development work for Harley-Davidson motorcycles and entered a stock block-powered car in the Indy 500 for which he received the 1987 Clint Brawner Mechanical Excellence Award.

Buttera died just four days after the death of his longtime good friend and hot rodding contemporary, Boyd Coddington, who died February 27 at age 63.