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When Greg Stelse opened Greg’s Speed Shop in the spring of 2018, he was filled with dreams about what he could do after he got his business humming at full speed. Stelse had given up a successful career in the trucking business to create a facility inspired by a trip to the Henry Ford Museum’s long-running “car culture” exhibit.
He bought a commercial building and redid it with a Texaco Station, a pinup girl dress shop, a pinup girl photo studio and an old-fashioned theatre inside. He decorated it with car dealer signs, hot rod club jackets, gas pumps, hot rods and racing cars. He even replicated a 1940s Pontiac dealership sign with the famous Indian head logo.
Once the first building was finished, Greg added two more brand new shop buildings where his skilled crew could build hot rods and gassers. Then, he moved in a full speed shop with hot rod and drag racing parts for sale.
In between working on these projects, Greg traveled coast-to-coast meeting hot rod celebrities such as Jo Coddington and Gene Winfield. At home, he worked seven days a week, except on those weekends when he took his ’57 Pontiac racing car to the drag strip. On those weekends, he piloted the two-tone green “The Joker” over the quarter-mile as fast as it could go.
Of course, just fast wasn’t fast enough for Stelse, so now he is tearing The Joker apart to install an aluminum floor, an aluminum trunk and a specially-made plastic windshield and back glass to shave about 700 lbs. off the car. He also plans to replace the small-block Chevy that previously powered the car with a 1,000-hp Pontiac mill.
All of this is only part of the dream, of course. Whatever Greg does, each step makes him dream about the next big step. So, he’s got a dream to make the rejuvenation of the Joker into a how-to-do-it cable television show.
When the car is finished—which won’t take a real long time, since he wants to retain its overall old-time drag racer looks—Stelse wants to enter The Joker in the 2020 Hot Wheels™ Legends Tour and hopefully win more than races with it.
Eighteen regional 2020 Hot Wheels™ Legends Tour events are scheduled to be held at Wal Marts across the country and Mattel headquarters. The winners of these will go to SEMA. At that show, one car will be selected to become a future Hot Wheels™ toy.
“I don’t think anyone ever made a ’57 Pontiac toy,” Greg said. “Maybe someone should.”
The SBC V-8 will be replaced with a Poncho mill.
An aluminum floor will be installed.
Legendary customizer Gene Winfield put the vintage stickers on Greg's car.
