Black, Blown, Bad, Behemoth Wagon

Words and photos by Jeff Burk

The behemoth of a wagon heats up the Hoosiers prior to another six-second, 200-mph pass. Check out the tilt of the roofline and the trick one-piece wing at the rear.

Question: What is primer black, blown, bad, fast, and looks like it could be driven by Bluto Blutarski as a parade float in a scene from the movie Animal House?

Answer: Todd Shepard's outrageous hemi-powered, chopped, channeled, lowered, sectioned, supercharged, 3000-lb, 1962 Plymouth Fury Wagon that runs 6.66/212 in the quarter-mile, that's what!

Obviously, Illinois racer and chassis builder Todd Shepherd marches to the beat of a different drummer, a drummer the likes of Ginger Baker or Cozy Cole as witnessed by the unique race car he built and drives.

Shepherd's chassis shop is located in Manhattan, IL, which is just a short drive from Joliet's famous Route 66 dragstrip. There Todd builds tube chassis cars for the local drag racing community.

"I usually build Camaro or Firebird race cars for my customers," Todd said, "but for myself I needed to build something different, like a '62 Plymouth Wagon."

This is not the first '62 Plymouth Wagon that Todd has built and raced.

"I had an all-steel wagon before," Todd said, "It had a blown Hemi in it like this one but it also had an all steel body, electric windows, and everything else a street car should have."

That car had a mild steel, square tube chassis, weighed 3570 lbs and ran a best of 7.41/198.

The wagon is powered by 526 cubic inches of aluminum KB/Hemi power. At Orlando the team used a PSI screw type blower and injector instead of the High Helix they will have to use. An Enderle 1100 pump handles fuel delivery. A Mallory Mag fires NGK plugs and the gases exit via custom bent 2.5" pipe and a Flowmaster muffler.

Todd's newest creation is a fiberglass version of the all steel car.The body is all fiberglass from VFN. Todd made the molds from a '62 Fury Wagon from Texas.

"I found the car and paid $700 for it and the guy drove it to Illinois from Texas and delivered it to my shop. I cut the body at the frame rails, lifted it off and drove the bare chassis out of the shop. A guy wanted to buy the radiator so I sold it to him provided he took everything else."

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