Procharged Chevrolet Malibu Wagon Is Not Your Grandma's Grocery Getter

I've seen quite a few two-door fourth-gen Malibus hit the drag strip with massive power flowing to the rear wheels. I've even seen a couple of four-door sedans leaving their family life behind to do burnouts and run quarter-mile sprints. Wagons, on the other hand, are a rare breed at the drag strip.

But someone took the plunge and converted an A-body fourth-gen Malibu station wagon into a drag machine. It still looks very much like a stock, early fourth-generation model (A-body Malibus were built from 1978 to 1981). It sports a very standard red paint job, all the chrome and the bumpers are still, and it even carries a rack on the roof.

Impressively enough, the wheel arches weren't even cut off to make room for the drag tires. Sure, the front skinnies aren't all that big, but the meaty rear tires kinda struggle to fit. The engine hood is the second hint that this station wagon is not a regular grocery getter thanks to that big bulge in the center.

The revised hood is there to provide room for a beefed-up V8. Fourth-gen Malibus were sold with a variety of V6 and V8 gasoline mills, including a V6 diesel toward the end of its life-cycle. But none of these were impressively powerful. The 5.0-liter V8, for instance, was good for only 170 horsepower.

That's a shameful figure for the drag strip, so the owner of this wagon ditched whatever was under the hood and went with a procharged V8. Unfortunately, there's no info as to how much oomph hits the rear wheels, but based on how fast it runs, we're talking about well in excess of 1,000 horsepower.

The run at the end shows the Malibu wagon covering the 1/8-mile in the low sixes, so it's definitely a sub-10-second quarter mile rig. And just at that insanely powerful launch!