About Joe Bucci

Joe Bucci was born in Malden Massachusetts February 4^th 1975. He moved to Raymond New Hampshire in the mid 80s. Some of his time was spent learning about old Chevrolets from his father and visiting the local dragstrip in Epping New Hampshire with his friends.

Joe’s first car was a 1969 Volkswagen Beetle that he immediately began modifying even though he was too young to drive at 14 years old. The Beetle was sold before he got his license so he and his father picked out a 1977 Chevy Monza with a 350 c.i. V8 as Joe’s first road going car. It was fast and Joe enjoyed driving it as well as learning how to work on cars hands on. Being 16 years old and delivering Pizza makes it hard to support a hot rod, so Joe moved on to more practical cars before finding himself driving a 1982 280ZX. This car peaked Joe’s interest in import performance cars and he began racing the local V8 guys in town occasionally.

Soon after, Joe drove a 1990 Plymouth Laser RS Turbo as his first experience with a turbocharged car. He was very impressed with the power of the car but didn’t realize the potential a factory turbocharged car really had.

By now, Joe was living in Bradenton Florida , home of Bradenton Motorsports Park . He had a 1991 Toyota MR2 but couldn’t find any good performance parts for it. Fed up, he bought a 1997 Honda Civic because all the publications he read advertised tons of Honda Parts. Even after buying these performance parts, Joe wanted more power. Joe finally made his first trips to the dragstrip as a driver in 1998 and was hooked. After some more reading an experience with Import cars and 4 Cylinders, Joe found the DSM Triplets to be the best bang for the buck in this class. Joe sold the Honda and started a search for a nice, clean DSM. The search ended 3 days later with the purchase of a 1994 Eagle Talon TSi AWD.

Modifications for the Eagle were easy to come by and affordable. More importantly, they made a difference you could feel immediately. Joe would frequently visit the track trying to make more power and go faster with the Talon. After sinking quite a bit of money into the Talon and getting the car to run deep in the 11s with a best of 11.20 @ 126, Joe decided that having a fast street car like the Talon was very expensive and stressful to keep mechanically sound so the Talon was parted out and sold.

It didn’t take long for Joe to realize he couldn’t get away from racing that easily and when the opportunity arose for a new “budget” race car project Joe couldn’t resist. Joe purchased his current race car project and intends to do his best to build it to be fast and consistent enough to make a good showing at any professional events he can make it to.