{"id":70309,"date":"2020-03-19T07:04:08","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T14:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=70309"},"modified":"2020-03-19T07:05:37","modified_gmt":"2020-03-19T14:05:37","slug":"rejuvenating-the-joker-with-greg-stelse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/rejuvenating-the-joker-with-greg-stelse\/","title":{"rendered":"Rejuvenating the Joker with Greg Stelse"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"jetpack-slideshow-noscript robots-nocontent\">This slideshow requires JavaScript.<\/p><div id=\"gallery-70309-1-slideshow\" class=\"jetpack-slideshow-window jetpack-slideshow jetpack-slideshow-black\" data-trans=\"fade\" data-autostart=\"1\" data-gallery=\"[{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.racingjunk.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/03\\\/Trunk-floor-will-also-be-aluminum-min.jpg&quot;,&quot;id&quot;:&quot;70316&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Rejuvenating the Joker with Greg Stelse&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Rejuvenating the Joker with Greg Stelse&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;Click Here to Begin Slideshow\\n\\nWhen Greg Stelse opened Greg\\u2019s 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\\u2019s long-running \\u201ccar culture\\u201d exhibit.\\n\\nHe 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.\\n\\nOnce 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.\\n\\nIn 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 \\u201957 Pontiac racing car to the drag strip. On those weekends, he piloted the two-tone green \\u201cThe Joker\\u201d over the quarter-mile as fast as it could go.\\n\\nOf course, just fast wasn\\u2019t 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.\\n\\nAll 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\\u2019s got a dream to make the rejuvenation of the Joker into a how-to-do-it cable television show.\\n\\nWhen the car is finished\\u2014which won\\u2019t take a real long time, since he wants to retain its overall old-time drag racer looks\\u2014Stelse wants to enter The Joker in the 2020 Hot Wheels\\u2122 Legends Tour and hopefully win more than races with it.\\n\\nEighteen regional 2020 Hot Wheels\\u2122 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\\u2122 toy.\\n\\n\\u201cI don\\u2019t think anyone ever made a \\u201957 Pontiac toy,\\u201d Greg said. \\u201cMaybe someone should.\\u201d&quot;,&quot;itemprop&quot;:&quot;image&quot;},{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.racingjunk.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/03\\\/The-SBC-V-8-will-be-replaced-with-a-Poncho-mill-min.jpg&quot;,&quot;id&quot;:&quot;70313&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Rejuvenating the Joker with Greg Stelse 1&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Rejuvenating the Joker with Greg Stelse&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;The SBC V-8 will be replaced with a Poncho mill.&quot;,&quot;itemprop&quot;:&quot;image&quot;},{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.racingjunk.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/03\\\/An-aluminum-floor-will-be-installed-min.jpg&quot;,&quot;id&quot;:&quot;70310&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Rejuvenating the Joker with Greg Stelse 2&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Rejuvenating the Joker with Greg Stelse&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;An aluminum floor will be installed.&quot;,&quot;itemprop&quot;:&quot;image&quot;},{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.racingjunk.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/03\\\/Legendary-customizer-Gene-Winfield-put-the-vintage-stickers-on-Gregs-car-min.jpg&quot;,&quot;id&quot;:&quot;70312&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Rejuvenating the Joker with Greg Stelse 3&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Rejuvenating the Joker with Greg Stelse&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;Legendary customizer Gene Winfield put the vintage stickers on Greg\\u0026#8217;s car.&quot;,&quot;itemprop&quot;:&quot;image&quot;},{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.racingjunk.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/03\\\/Frame-will-be-boxed-min.jpg&quot;,&quot;id&quot;:&quot;70311&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Rejuvenating the Joker with Greg Stelse 4&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Rejuvenating the Joker with Greg Stelse&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;The frame will be boxed.&quot;,&quot;itemprop&quot;:&quot;image&quot;},{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.racingjunk.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/03\\\/This-will-also-be-little-changed-min.jpg&quot;,&quot;id&quot;:&quot;70314&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Rejuvenating the Joker with Greg Stelse 5&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Rejuvenating the Joker with Greg Stelse&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;This will also be little changed.&quot;,&quot;itemprop&quot;:&quot;image&quot;},{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.racingjunk.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/03\\\/This-will-remain-mostly-as-is-min.jpg&quot;,&quot;id&quot;:&quot;70315&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Rejuvenating the Joker with Greg Stelse 6&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Rejuvenating the Joker with Greg Stelse&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;This will remain mostly as is.&quot;,&quot;itemprop&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}]\" itemscope itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageGallery\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>When Greg Stelse opened Greg\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":70316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3697,3470,4879],"tags":[5307,4594,4892,6063,304,41,1468,4888,7604],"class_list":["post-70309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-galleries","category-news","category-slideshow","tag-builds","tag-drag-race-car","tag-galleries","tag-greg-stelse","tag-john-gunnell","tag-news","tag-pontiac","tag-slideshow","tag-the-joker"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Trunk-floor-will-also-be-aluminum-min.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-ii1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70317,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70309\/revisions\/70317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}