Yes, that’s an actual school bus cab on the race car that Luke Johnson will race in the Lone Star 600 at Devil’s Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Texas. However, he did not use the bus body for sheer aesthetic value.
“I chose the bus body so I could have a full sail panel on the left side,” said Johnson, of Douglas, Alabama. “The cab would act as a wind tunnel in the corners, keeping me from spinning out.”
Johnson, a retired U.S. Air Force engineer, designed the “Cool Bus ” himself. He based it on a 1990s Lightning pavement modified chassis.
“I traded a set of 441 double-hump [cylinder] heads for that modified chassis,” Johnson said. “[The chassis] was rusted to a trailer, so we tied the car to a tree and dragged the trailer out from under it.”
Johnson reclipped the chassis with a 1970 Ford Torino front clip. He added wide-five hubs and dirt late model spindles. The front suspension has OEM-style lower A-frames, with fully adjustable uppers. In the rear, Johnson uses a three-link suspension, with a spring bar on the top right and a swing arm on the left. Outlaw Super Lite brakes will stop the vehicle.
“I took the rear steering box out,” said Johnson. “I put a Sweet Mfg. rack and pinion in it to make it steer from the front,” said Johnson.
Johnson also built the 420hp Chevrolet 355-cid engine, which has a forged crankshaft and connecting rods from Eagle Specialty Products. For the drivetrain, he installed a Winters quick-change rear end and a Brinn racing transmission.
The Cool Bus may look heavy, but Johnson needed to add 300 lb. of ballast to make the 2,800-lb. minimum for the race. The experienced fabricator owns Classic Bodies, which specializes in building 1957 Chevrolet bodies for racers.
“I saw all these cars with sprint car wings blowing my doors off,” Johnson said of his Lone Star 600 experience last year. “I’m not on the sprint-car-wing bandwagon. I wanted to have the most aero, so I made the entire body a large sail panel.”
The fabricator incorporated one trick part in the body.
“The rear spoiler is built with a cam lever so that it becomes a spring-loaded system — closing when the car is still and opening as the car travels around the speedway to reduce drag,” Johnson said.
The Lone Star 600 pays $10,000 to the winner of the Friday, October 1, 300-lapper. It awards an additional $10,000 to the victor of the Saturday, October 2, 300-lapper. The racer with the best average finish earns a $5,000 bonus. Johnson, a single father, will bring his daughter, Ivy, as his crew crew chief.
“I’m not going all the way to the Lone Star 600 to do good — I’m going there to win,” said Johnson. “Last year, I finished 27th in a Chevelle, out of the 192 cars entered. That lit my fire to come back and win.”
Johnson’s Cool Bus went viral when Dirt Defender shared it on Facebook. Dirt Defender returned the favor to Luke Johnson.
“I’m excited to announce that I have my first real sponsor starting with this race — Dirt Defender has come on board,” said Johnson. “Now, I’m even more driven to win.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
