Wally's Racing "Gator"
Shortly after Wally opened the doors to his first garage back in 1983, he got hooked by the racing bug. He started with a stock 1962 VW Beetle and dubbed it, "Gator." Gator was a serious drag racer competing in the Pro bracket with a VW air cooled motor that pumped out 253 horsepower and ran the quarter mile in 10.99 seconds at a speed of 121 MPH. Although the Beetle was basically a stock car, Wally equipped it with the industry standard dual Weber carburetors and a host of other hot rod parts and pieces that brought the overall motor size to 2220 CC. He also ran a beefed up standard transmission to help him get down the strip.
During the 20 years that Wally raced Gator, he won dozens of races at various tracks including; PIR, SIR, Woodburn and Sacramento. Wally's Gator was also featured in issues of Hot VWs and VW Trends magazines. Wally sold his Gator in 2010 and the new owner still races it with one of the motors Wally built for it. But Wally hasn't retired from racing, he currently races another 1962 VW Beetle (Wally has had this car since he was 13), this time in the Sportsman bracket. His new drag racer, yet to be named, runs a slightly smaller 2165 CC VW air cooled engine that gets the bug down the quarter mile in a respectable 13.83 seconds at 97 MPH and until just recently it was his daily driver. |
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