1967 Buick Gran Sport Funny Car

The Ingenue Buick Gran Sport Flip Top Funny Car represents an era in racing when private entrepreneurs could successfully put together a racing program on a slim budget to race against the Chrysler and Ford factories that at the time had unlimited budgets. It is only one of 2 Buick body Funny Cars that raced in the 1967-69 period.

Jerry Lipori and Steve Malise were co-owners of Brooklyn Speed and Marine and they made the fateful decision to go funny car racing in 1966. With the assistance from nearly all of the Buick dealers in New York, Ingenue was created. Ingenue utilizes a straight forward copy of a Logghe chassis design, along with a nitromethane burning 430 cubic inch Buick engine. At the time, it was the only Flip Top Funny Car utilizing this type of engine. The body was made from a mold pulled from a 67' Buick Grand Sport and built up by Ron Pelligrini of Fiberglass Limited fame in Chicago.

The Ingenue logged speeds in excess of 190 miles per hour with elapsed times in the 7.7 second range in 1969. This was accomplished using a 392 cubic inch Chrysler Hemi engine. This was later replaced with a Buick engine once the restoration began. It is capable of starting on nitro methane fuel.