Tommy Ivo's Quad-Engine Buick Wagonmaster Is the World's Most Extreme Grocery Getter

And by "insane" I don't necessarily mean ludicrously powerful and fast. Tommy took things up a notch with twin- and quad-engined contraptions. Ivo first got everyone's attention in 1957 when he started racing his Buick-powered T-bucket. He was only 19 years old. He quickly replaced the single V8 with a twin-engine setup, dropping two Nailhead mills side by side in front of the cockpit.

The recipe proved successful and Ivo became the first racer to break the nine-second barrier with a gasoline-powered dragster, setting the AA/GD record at 8.69 clicks. Ivo also became the first to hit 170, 175, and 185 mph (274, 282, and 298 kph) in a gas-fed dragster, also while driving the Twin Buick.

"Instant Ivo" is also famous for racing one of only two seven-second Top Fuel dragsters. It happened in 1963 when he challenged Don Prudhomme to the iconic Seven Second Match Race. But to me, the quad-engine Buick Wagonmaster remains his most extreme and exciting creation.

The wagon-style dragster you're looking at started life as a slingshot racer known as Showboat. Ivo introduced the monster in 1961 with no fewer than four V8 engines. All were Buick Nailhead, 401-cubic-inch (6.6-liter) powerplants grouped in pairs between the front axle and the cockpit.

Yup, I'm talking about the big-block V8 that powered iconic cars like the Buick Riviera, Electra, and Skylark. Showboat was basically a dragster with two V-16 engines. On top of that, it had all-wheel-drive power. The engines on the left side drove the front wheels, while the ones on the right drove the rear axle.

Good for a combined 2,000 horsepower and since it had an AWD setup, the four-engined monster looked like a cloud of smoke while charging down the quarter-mile. It was obviously difficult to drive in a straight line, mostly because the driver couldn't see due to all the smoke rising from the tires. But this was exactly what turned it into a crowd-pleaser.

As it usually happens with out-of-the-box and extreme ideas, Showboat was relegated to exhibition-only status by the NHRA, which feared that the four-engine concept would take off and turn drag strips into chaos. So while it was still allowed at NHRA events, Showboat couldn't compete. But Ivo didn't care. He took his quad-engined show on the road and created the first traveling drag racing act.

The dragster was campaigned until 1963 when Ivo opted to return to Top Fuel racing and sold Showboat to crewman Tom McCourry. The race car visited drag strips across the U.S. a few more years until it was converted into Wagonmaster in 1981. The conversion added a station wagon-style rear end over the cockpit and a Buick Riviera-inspired clip in front of the engines.

Crafted by hand and from scratch by Tom Hanna, the bodywork turned Showboat into an extreme mock-up of a 1970s grocery getter. One that was just as popular as the original slingshot at the drag strip.

Following its final competitive run at the 1982 World Finals at Orange County Raceway, Wagonmaster went into storage. It did make occasional appearances at various events, including a vintage category run at the July 1996 Goodguys Nostalgia National at Indianapolis, but it remained a garage queen for many years. Oh, and did I mention that it was also owned by Norm Day?

It's been 60 years since Ivo built Showboat and it's still the most extreme dragster out there. Apparently, the quad-engine layout didn't catch on, so Ivo remains not just the pioneer of this idea, but also the only one who managed to pull off a competitive concept. The station wagon body that was added two decades later completed Ivo's masterpiece, turning it into the fastest and most powerful grocery-getter ever created.

Sure, you can't drive it on public roads and it's definitely something that you wouldn't drive to the grocery store, but hey, it's a legit station wagon. The four V8 engines (or two V16 mills if you like it better) are just the icing on the cake.

Oh, and if you want to own this monster of a car, you'll be able to bid on it in January 2022. Because that's when Mecum Auctions will put it under the hammer during its Kissimmee auction event. It will probably fetch more than $1 million, but it's a vehicle that will make you an instant star anywhere you go. On the other hand, it will also drive your neighbors mad when you fire it up. Still worth it!