THE WHITE WAGON RIDES AGAIN?
For seven years a refrigerator white, 1964 Chevy II wagon terrorized
the IHRA landscape. The car was no best appearing candidate, 
but it
could run hard and win.
It rambled around the Carolinas and the Southeast, hunting and
gathering round wins and purses along the way. One month in 1974 this
legendary race car won as much as $15,000 in one month.
The high-winding Modified eliminator runner, known simply as Gene
Fulton’s white wagon, won three world championships with the ace engine
builder behind the wheel.
CompetitionPlus.com Embarks on Project White Wagon …
For seven years a refrigerator white, 1964 Chevy II wagon terrorized the IHRA landscape. The car was no best appearing candidate, but it could run hard and win.
It rambled around the Carolinas and the Southeast, hunting and gathering round wins and purses along the way. One month in 1974 this legendary race car won as much as $15,000 in one month.
The high-winding Modified eliminator runner, known simply as Gene Fulton’s white wagon, won three world championships with the ace engine builder behind the wheel.
On a Saturday afternoon, while making a qualifying lap during the 1978 IHRA Spring Nationals in Bristol, Tenn., Fulton, while driving the wagon, was struck by an errant race car that had broken a rear spindle and drifted into his lane.
Fulton was sent to the hospital with serious injuries while the wagon, a once unbeatable machine, was reduced to a twisted pile of rubble.
The wagon was returned to Spartanburg, S.C., Fulton’s hometown, where it was buried behind his shop and given a tombstone bearing the likeness of the wagon.
That was 31 years ago.
CompetitionPlus.com poses the question if this kind of a car could exist in today’s complex world of Super Stock. Could an old 1964 Chevy II wagon, a car Fulton originally selected for its ability to stick to the marginal tracks, compete with the plethora of late-modeled entries?
Can a stick-shifted car please the crowds and yet remain competitive in this modern day world where the manual transmission cars are not the championship combination of choice?
Those are the questions that CompetitionPlus.com and a band of manufacturers plan to answer in the next several months as the internet magazine embarks on its second project car in ten years.
Project White Wagon will begin in the TL Race Cars shop in Union, S.C., and within the next two weeks, we will begin to chronicle the construction as chassis builder Tom Lukans will take a pair of junkyard ’64 Chevy II wagons and transform them into a modern version of Fulton’s championship-winning ride.
The initial plan will be to prepare the car as the modern day equivalent of the old E/Modified Production classification. The engine could be as small as 262-cubic inches or as large as 350. The transmission will be a five-speed and the rear suspension will be a four-link from Quarter-max Race Cars. Fluid Power Specialties has provided the tubing for the rollcage.
Could the engine possess a bit of Fulton’s engine building magic?
Could a certain driver with a bull-horned helmet climb behind the wheel of a race car for the first time in two decades?
You’ll just have to tune in for the next few months to find out the answers to these questions.
Get ready to be entertained with this tribute to our hometown hero.
RELATED ARTICLE: THE WHITE WAGON: THE CAR THAT BUILT HISTORY
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