Twice Is Nice, But Four Engines Was Just Right
7/7/06
 In 1966, Tom McCourry commissioned Tom Hanna to create this all- aluminum, Riviera-based body for the former Buick-powered dragster of Tommy Ivo. Among other custom touches, the so-called "station wagon" featured drag racing's first escape hatch. The Wagon Master later made money for Ron Pelligrini, Norm Day, and original-owner Ivo, who took his 1982 retirement tour in the 21-year-old (!) Kent Fuller chassis. (Photo by Patton) |
One night last month, mere hours after enjoying Chris Martin’s entertaining remembrances of twice-motored Funny Cars on these pages, I was driving down a dark mountain road. Suddenly, what’s left of my brain was slammed with black-and-white snapshots of the four-engined Riviera Wagon Master. Gawd knows that plenty of pictures were published of a vehicle that performed in three different decades. I’d also seen this marvel of hot-rod engineering perform many times, as both a dragster (1961-65) and after it magically morphed into a Buick Riviera station wagon (1966-82).
Ford's answer to Buick's station wagon was Gary Weckesser's four- wheel-drive Mustang, which mounted four 351 Clevelands in a Kent Fuller chassis. Named the Mach IV, this car match-raced the Wagon Master at least once in 1970 before disappearing. (Photos are rare; this is a page out of Dave Wallace's 1981 pictorial, "Petersen's History Of Drag Racing".)