Ok, we’re mid-way through November, and while the glittery, lit-up tree, wreaths, caroling and eggnog can wait for a bit longer, Christmas shopping is certainly within the realm of reality right now. Especially if you’ve endured the wonders and joy of Black Friday shopping. After doing that for years without everybody being cooped up last year, there is no way I’d go out and dare to hit the parking lots in anything that didn’t look like a derby-prepared 1975 Chrysler New Yorker. But really…outside of clothes or local goodies, what can’t you find that isn’t available online? For the average Joe, Amazon pretty much can do it all, with the credit card taking the hit and the UPS guy cussing you out for good measure. But if you’ve got a gearhead in the family (and if you’re reading this, your family certainly has one), then shopping gets a bit more difficult, because let’s face it…nobody wants that little tin sign with the cars on it from Hobby Lobby.

My holiday wish list is simple: a shot at the Firm Feel, Inc. catalog for suspension components for the Charger and some peace and quiet. But that got me thinking about others…specifically, this year, about what Brian Lohnes would love to have parked in his driveway with ribbons tied on. Compared to the average gearhead, Brian is easy to shop for. All you need are four words: vintage, historic, drag racing. Job done.

I’m not asking St. Nick for a thing this year. Apparently, he puts my letters directly into the holly, jolly shredder each and every year. So, in the spirit of “Tis’ better to give than to receive”, let’s take a swipe at Brian’s dream Christmas morning.

T.V. Tommy

Photo: Street Machine

First off, before we get to any of the gifts, we need to give you the history behind the man who was involved with them all, “T.V.” Tommy Ivo. A gifted kid from the word “go”, Tommy’s nickname is derived from the fact that he was a kid star.  From the early 1940s until about 1963, Ivo was what you would call a child actor today. Among his credits, he appeared on “Lone Ranger”, “The Donna Reed Show”, “Leave It To Beaver”, “Father Knows Best”, “The Mickey Mouse Club”, and “Petticoat Junction”. By his late 20s, he was pretty well sorted…and pretty well bored with Hollywood. You see, in the early 1950s, Ivo discovered drag racing. Yeah…that pretty much dictated Ivo’s second act, especially after a 1961 Hot Rod photo shoot that saw Ivo’s four-engined dragster, then known as Showboat, parked on the set of the ABC show that he was working on at the time called “Margie”. Yeah, that caused some problems with the studio, and it left Ivo banned from drag racing right up until the show was cancelled.

Ivo’s drag racing career has far overshadowed his Hollywood exploits. Without going into a full-blown history lesson, here’s what you need to know: he ran dragsters (both front and rear-engined), Funny Cars, jet dragsters, and most famously, the four-engined, four-wheel-drive, Buick Nailhead-powered machine then known as “Showboat”. He claimed the first seven-second run against Don Garlits in Seattle (and was the first to hit 190 MPH on the same race), and got the first five-second run in 1972 in Pennsylvania. He then moved on to Funny Cars, running with the Rod Shop crew and piloting a Dodge Demon/Dart Sport and Charger until he lost sponsorship, then on his own with a Plymouth Arrow. He built a jet car, but he never drove it. Then he cleaned up his four-engined dragster, which now was known as “Wagonmaster” and wore a Buick station wagon body…which lasted until an eventful race in Saskatoon, Canada, when the Wagonmaster hit a section of track that had raised up due to the conditions. On impact, Tommy suffered crushed vertebrae and retired. He would drive the car twice more, the last time in Indy in 1996.

Now that you have the history, let’s look at the dream Christmas morning.

The Presents

First up is this Don Long designed and built front-engined dragster. Outside of it’s provenance, this is a pretty standard 426 Hemi-powered dragster of the era. But this is also the kind of car that leans towards Ivo’s record-setting style.

Next up would be the 1974 Larry Sikora-designed rear-engined dragster made infamous in a hellacious 1974 crash at Pomona, the one where Ivo went through the traps upside-down, backwards and burning. Never mind the reason it’s famous, this is also one of the first Top Fuel dragsters that clipped 250 MPH in the quarter.

The notable difference between Ivo and his competition was that Ivo was a white-glove kind of guy. Everything clean, everything beautiful. This set him apart from other racers. And it was the details, like this illuminated, glass-sided trailer that showed off his racers, that helped earn him fame as a household name. If you saw this cruising down the road as a kid, you’d go bonkers.

A nod to Ivo’s Funny Car days is this 1976 Dodge Charger, which was rebuilt and painted by Cruz Pedregon. The McKinney chassis flopper runs a nitromethane-swilling 426 Hemi.

And, the icing on the cake, the Wagonmaster itself. Four Buick Nailheads, naturally aspirated, four-wheel-drive. Burying your right foot into that kind of power equals full-length quarter-mile four-wheel burnouts and a healthy respect for your own personal survival instinct. Tommy likened driving the car to a Sherman tank, but if there was one thing that Ivo was most of all, he was a showman and he knew that the car was a gold mine. This is the original “Showboat” car, with a later 1960s-esque Buick body wrapped around it.

Want more details about these cars? They are all available at Mecum’s Kissimmee 2021 auction!