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When it comes to horsepower, is there ever such a thing as too much? When Gary Weckesser was building an exhibition funny car in 1969, he likely asked himself that same question, arriving at an answer of “no.” Not content to power his tube-frame, fiberglass-bodied Mustang with a single 351-cu.in. Windsor V-8, Weckesser opted to stuff four of them in front of the windshield, creating the appropriately named, four-wheel drive Mustang Mach IV. In honor of the Mustang’s 50th anniversary, this car highlights a new Petersen Museum exhibit entitled Mustangs Forever: 50 Years of a Legend.
In fairness, Weckesser wasn’t the first chef to test this particular recipe for speed. In 1961, “TV” Tommy Ivo created a dragster powered by four Buick nailhead V-8s, following his success with a twin engine dragster campaigned in 1960. Showboat, as Ivo’s four-engine dragster was known, powered the rear differential via the right side engines (mounted in a conventional orientation) and powered the front differential via reverse-mounted engines on the left side. Later, under Tom McCourry’s ownership, Showboat would wear a Buick station wagon body, running exhibition races as the WagonMaster. Mickey Thompson also famously experimented with a four-engine setup in his Challenger I land-speed racing streamliner, as did Jim Lytle in his Quad Al.
There’s no doubt that Ivo’s Showboat served as an inspiration for Weckesser’s Mustang Mach IV. Rather than following Ivo’s exact formula, however, Weckesser oriented all four fuel-injected Windsor V-8s in a conventional manner, sending power to the rear and front differentials through a single transmission and single (particularly stout) clutch. Output was said to be in the range of 3,000 horsepower, and the car’s documentation states that the Mach IV was capable of running E.T.s in the eight-second range, at a trap speed of just over 180 MPH, but at least one pass reportedly topped the 200 MPH mark back in the day.
The Mach IV apparently ran against the Showboat at Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey, and later ran against the WagonMaster (driven by Tom McCourry) at California’s Fremont Dragway. Active on the show and exhibition drag circuit from 1969 through 1975 (sponsored, in part, by Galpin Ford), Weckesser began spending less time behind the wheel as his family obligations evolved and as sponsorship became harder and harder to arrange in the fuel-conscious mid-seventies. By the early 1980s, the Mach IV was in storage in Weckesser’s garage, temporarily sidelined by the demands of his career as an over-the-road trucker.
Other Mustangs on display at the Petersen Museum’s exhibit include the 1967 Malco Gasser Mustang, the first gasoline-powered car to run the quarter-mile in the eights; a 1965 Ford Mustang convertible used by Ronald Reagan during his 1966 campaign for governor of California; the George Barris-designed Zebra Mustang, as driven by Nanacy Sinatra in the 1965 film Marriage on the Rocks; a 1971 Ford Mustang fastback, nicknamed Eleanor, as driven in the 1974 version of Gone in 60 Seconds; a 1991 Ford Mustang LX convertible, owned by director Francis Ford Coppola; and a 2008 Ford Mustang FR500-C Bonneville racer driven by Mickey Thompson’s son Danny to a recorded pass over 252 MPH, making it the world’s fastest production-based Mustang. In addition to these cars, Mustangs of all generations are represented in the Petersen’s exhibit, which is meant to appeal to fans of all Mustang variants.
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