We know what you want to think about when you see this car, but don’t. Yes, Gary Weckesser’s four engine Mustang called the Mach IV has four wheel drive and 300% more engines than the typical family car but it is pretty different from drag racing’s other and more famous four engine machine. Tommy Ivo’s famed “Showboat” with the four nailhead Buick engines hanging out in the breeze makes this thing look like a go kart. We’re not saying that to insult Weskesser’s machine, in fact it is kind of a compliment. The whole car is a smaller scale version of the same absolutely show stopping look.

While the visual impact of this car is obviously the biggest thing, we’d be remiss if we didn’t share a couple of facts about the car with you. The first is that it actually did meet up with Ivo’s “Showboat” in a match race at Englishtown, New Jersey in 1971. It defeated the famed Buick powered monster managing fairly mundane elapsed times in the 10.70s at just over 115mph, so that tells us things weren’t exactly going to plan. After all, with four alky injected 351ci Ford mills at his disposal, Gary Weckesser had more than enough power to run 10s. He did have a massive (relatively speaking) amount of weight to get moving with all that iron laying there in front of him, but he did have four wheel drive in his favor. One of the genius level things about this car is that all of the motors were hooked together and all of the power was fed through a single clutch. There wasn’t dual transmissions of clutches, it was all dispersed through the one unit. Signage with the car stated that it could run into the 7-second zone. We’re not disputing that it has the power to do so, there is just no historical record (that we can find) of the car running that hard or fast. If someone in reader-land has it, we want to know and we’ll happily amend this piece.

The car was sponsored by California’s famous Galpin Ford back in the day and it now resides in their collection. This is the REAL car, not a recreation or anything of the sort. In fact, we have VIDEO of this car (with the body off) being brought back to life and push started last year! Oh, it rules THE VIDEO IS BELOW ALL OF OUR SWEET, SWEET PHOTOS. YOU HAVE TO WATCH IT, BY LAW. 

Kent Fuller built the chassis and did the body, which is cool on multiple fronts. Front one is the wild flake paint job with metal flake in it large enough to dig out and pick your teeth with. Secondly, a funny car body was taken, chopped, sectioned, shortened, and made to fit the wild chassis. The effect is something straight out of the funny papers but it actually works. Would you believe that the car has REAL chrome bumpers on either end?! Seriously, it has real chrome bumpers on both ends. This is a later paint scheme. We understand when Gary first rolled the car out in front of crowds, it was in a blue and white scheme. The driver’s area is just like you’d expect to see in a funny car. Weckesser was poured in there and probably needed Crisco to get out, but these things aren’t built for long term comfort.

The old Firestone slicks on the corners rule and the 32-exhaust header pipes protruding in all directions like some sort of insane mechanical porcupine literally stop traffic. This car was on display in the Galpin area at SEMA and as you can see from the photos, people were around it CONSTANTLY and rightfully so. This is one of those “unicorn” type drag cars that most people hear some weirdo story of and then forget about…only to walk into a tent and see it sitting right there in front of them.

We’d give an appendage to drive this monster…and we know it drives. How? WE HAVE VIDEO OF IT BEING PUSH STARTED LAST YEAR! CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS AND WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW!