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Mach IV – The 4 Engined 1969 Mustang Inspired By TV Tommy Ivo
by Josh Courter on January 17, 2014 (courtesy of StangTV.com)

(Click on a photo below to enlarge)

In the late 1950′s actor turned drag racing Tommy Ivo built one of the wildest dragsters of all time: a 4-Buick-engined dragster nicknamed Showboat. Showboat was a multi engined all wheel drive dragster that was not only fast but put on one hell of a show at the strip. Later, using the same concept, Tommy built a 4-engined Buick station wagon funny car nicknamed Wagon Master.

Only a few cars have ever imitated this concept, the most well known is this 4 engined Mustang Funny Car nicknamed Mach IV. Galpin Ford a division of Galpin Auto Sports known for building one off Ford hot rods has recently restored it after it sat since the late 70s.

Mach IV is a Funny Car based off of a 1969 Mustang Mach 1. It was originally built in 1969 by Gary Weckesser, who originally built the car to be a show piece – but he did race it on occasion in a few match races.

Most of these match races were against Tommy Ivo’s Wagon Master and he managed to win a few of them. He won the first race against Ivo in 1971 at Englishtown New Jersey turning an ET of 10.70 @ 115 MPH.

Mach IV was parked in 1985 as Weckesser then had a family to raise. Galpin Ford (the builders of the Ultimate Ranchero) has sponsored the car since the 1970′s and they have taken the liberty of restoring for their collection. They rebuilt all four 351ci alcohol injected engines; each engine put out 750 horsepower for a total of 3000 horses.

The Goodyear Flintstone tires provide traction and the 32 exhaust Zoomie headers provide a soundtrack cooler than any racing game. Galpin Ford plans on showing Mach IV at several events during the year, though they haven’t announced any plans for a quarter mile pass yet.