Anyone know what ever happened to Jason (RACIN JASON) Betwardas vert?

I found this online and figured someone here must know its whereabouts.

QUOTE:

Here's a pic of the coupe that Racin Jason Betwarda died in. He stopped driving the convertible around 96-97, had someone else driving it. Then built this coupe to run 10.5 tire classes...and drove it himself.

I didn't actually know him, but we had a mutual friend. His money came from Ice Cream, of all things ...his family owned a chain of Ice Cream stores.

Anyways, he was killed in 99, running a test pass in the coupe....he was trying out a set of the (then brand new) M/T 33x10.5's. What I heard was that the tire diameter swelled much more than they had anticipated at top speed....which caused one of them to make contact with the body, a wheel tub, or something, and shredded the tire. The car flipped upside down and landed hard on top of the wall, right on the drivers A-pillar. .

Pretty sad...he seemed to be a real cool guy too. The vert did surface on Ebay a couple years ago, I watched the auction...considering the cars history, it sold cheap as a roller. I don't remember exactly, but I think it only went for like $16-$18K.....and it had been in the 7's. If I'm not mistaken, I believe it was the first fox door slammer in the 7's.


END QUOTE:

Its sad if this car is not in a meuseum somehwere.

 

I thought i read it was

 

I Hope so.
Anyone know where?

Would love to see the car ut I think it sold as a roller didnt it?

Would have been nice if it stayed together

 

Man that was my dream car when I first got into the 5.0 scene!! There should be a special museum for these old 5.0 pioneers!
Jasons vert, Gene Deputys car,Nitrous Pete's car, Don Walsh SR, Craig Radovich........ Thank god Brian Wolf still gets his out every now and then!


.......I miss the old days. I feel old now.

 

I'll ask "Wild Bill" Devine tomorow when he stops by if he knows who has it, I knew Mike Ragusa had one of the Probes Jason was testing, we were talking about his crash the other day as Conrad Scarry had a bad wreck a short while back and MT came after the tires to"Check them" heard the never got the ones off of Jason's car.

 

I never knew jason, but my buddy worked for turbo people.

I race primarily at LVD and englishtown and am actually a PONTIAC guy, but I knew who Jason was(who didnt) and was always astonished by his accomplishments.

I have a ton of respect for what he was doing and how he was doing it.

The turbo on my car is even one of Jasons old turbos I got from my buddy.

I am the moderator on pontiaczone.com forced forums and I try and tell these guys about Jason and turbo people and all the turbo history I can.


We are light years behind the ford guys in turbocharging and its partially due to guys like Jason B. and the other 5.0 guys.

Would be very cool to be able to see some of these cars again.

Just amazing the numbers they were running back then and how hard its been for guys to surpass what they did since then.

Its a shame theres not more videos of Thier runs out there. I know at one point someone on a website was talking about making a DVD of all his runs but In all my searching I havent been able to find anything produced.

 

There was a thread like this on hardcore50 a few years back and somebody posted who had the vert.

We also talked about a few other cars...like Murrillo's original Star Car, Les Baer's red Pro 5.0 car that caused all sorts of controversy, as well as the powertrain from Grebeck's car after his wreck/death.

 

I have wrote to MM&FF a few times over the years about an idea I thought would be very cool. GuitarWorld mag used to save the last page of each mag for a photo of a famous players headstone {SRV,Hendrix,etc} with a little paragraph about them and where they were layed to rest. I always thought it would be cool to do the same with some of these old legends of our sport but instead of the drivers find the old cars. A kind of "where are they now?" ,I cant imagine it to be very hard to hunt down where some of these cars ended up.

 

I don't know about the car, but he lives back in my home town in IL. For local shows, he trailer out like 4-5 awesome cars. I'm talking 4,000 original mile r-code 69 BOSS 429s, perfect boss 302s, Shelbys, etc.

 

Bill Devine stopped by and I asked him about the vert, he said a guy by the name of BillWeiner bought the car from Jason with the intention of detailing it out and showing it at car shows, races, ect.

Figurein about another 20 years MMFF will have a barn find issue with a 82 "L" 5.0 notch .

 

How crazy would that be to find that original car with all its history and not know what you had.

There have been alot of reports of it being sold as a roller on Ebay.
Wonder if theres any truth to that and if it was this guy or if he sold it later.

Sold for 15 to 16K from what I have read but who knows.

You know this grapevine.


You gotta wonder if those cars will be worth what some of the early 60's SD pontiacs or the tunnel port fords, or ZL1 camaros are worth.

They werent really factory/dealer sponsored were they.

I am not that familiar with that class other than knowing it was bad ass in its day!

I heard MMFF had lots of good coverage of Jasons cars anyone got any copies or links they can post.

That'd be cool to read.

 

My first real venture into the world of Mustangs was the December 95? issue of MM&FF and his car was on the cover...at that point I said that I was going to have a Mustang....

...it was also my first venture into the world of turbos, little did I know at the time that I would become a turbo freak, but that car was the first Turbo Mustang I ever "knew" that I was looking at.

 

I met the guy who has (had) the car. I can't remember his name but we chatted at englishtown for like an hour. He was friends with the family and bought pretty much all the crap he left. Said he was going to put it back together. This was probably 8 years ago though.

 

I found the post on hardcore50.com about Jason's vert.

http://www.hardcore50.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=410790#post410790

It was posted in 2002.

 

This is even more strange based on that last post.

http://www.hardcore50.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=14948

 

Hello Everyone.....

Let's fast foward on the RJ Vert! As a long time Friend of Jason(RIP) and Mike Ragusa, I recently came across a for sale ad on another forum for Ol Whitey as Bill W calls her. As soon as I saw the car for sale, so did Mike and I called him if he wanted it or can I grab it after many year's in a storage garage in Chicago, Ill. Mike said go ahead grab it which I left my house w/ Truck and Enclosed Trailer as well my Son and Friend Jim and drove srtaight there, loaded it up and right back home.

I have plan's for the Vert to be raced again, Mike behind the wheel, the Blessing of Jason's Parent's thru Mike, and once again restore the Vert with the SB Ford Twin Turbo (1700-2000HP) looking to run 7.50's again. First the car is currently at C&F Race Car's for a complete update and upgrade on the Chassis and Suspension to recert for 7.50's.

At the completion of the Chassis updating the car will be going to the Body Shop for some cosmetic touch which is very minor however this car was never raced unless it looked perfect.

Currently looking at a serious Motor and once the Motor is built as well as the killa PG, the car will be sent to Frank at PSI for install, fabrication of piping, Intercooler, etc plus the Computer and finally a chassis Dyno to sort out everything. Frank is the Best!!!!!

The car has been invited to attend the Bowling Green, KY Race next year as the first car down the track as well as other event's throughout the season next year. The most important outing will be 03-31-2015 which will be the 20th Anniv the Vert made history as the first Pro 5.0 to run 7's at 185. This will be the first car down the track that day as well as after a moment of silence in memory of the Man that was responsible for making Mustang and Ford Racing what it has become today.

Keep a look out for this car's return, it is truly an awesome piece of racing history!!!!

All the Best,
Joe C NY

 

Joe, Thanks for the update!!! PLEASE come back and update us as often as possible!! Maybe even start a thread in the Builds Board?

We've been following the news here: https://www.theturboforums.com/thre...ave-this-in-your-garage?p=1884640#post1884640

 

Like I said in the other thread Disney posted, if it makes it to BG I'm there! This car was everything back in the '90s to a young kid just dreaming about turbos. I still remember hanging out in Wild Bill's trailer back in 2000 or so with Job Spetter and helping take off Bill's turbo about three times one day.

 

I will def keep you all posted on the progress and events the car, Mike and I will be attending.

Thank you All!

 

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