While the original Little Red Wagon may have become an accidental hero, Roger Lang’s version was always destined for stardom.

Back in 1965 Bill ‘Maverick’ Golden surprised not only himself but the whole world when his Dodge A100 pick-up lifted the front wheels off the ground under a hard launch. Granted, the A100 was built as a demo car — and to be the fastest truck in the land — and it was far from standard, but wheel stands were few and far between in those days, and most certainly did not get performed by Dodge trucks.

While the first few wheel stands happened accidentally during filming for a television commercial, from there the Little Red Wagon went on to become the world’s first dedicated and most famous wheel stander.

Getting the truck to perform its acrobatics was relatively simple, thanks to a 426ci Hemi mounted just rearwards of the vehicle’s cab. With around four times as much power as the factory slant six, and more rearwards weight distribution, the nose would lift on command and it became a great advertising campaign for what are admittedly not the most pleasant-looking vehicles.

From that accidental beginning the Little Red Wagon went on to tour America, appearing at events across the country. It wasn’t until 2003 that Maverick retired, and the Little Red Wagon retired with him, although within that time there had been a few different wagons, since they slowly got destroyed by the antics. (more…)

The June issue of NZV8 has just hit the shelves, so grab a copy today.

In this month’s issue we have the half-Ford, half-Holden – Folden as our cover car and an article outlining the extensive work that went into creating this unique machine. Our other featured cars include an immaculate 1957 Oldsmobile Super 88 and an awesome 1968 Dodge A100 Pick-Up ‘Little Red Wagon’ tribute vehicle. We check out a ‘zero to hero’ 1969 Chvevrolet Camaro and a race-spec Toyota Starlet powered by a Rover V8 engine. Our massive events section includes coverage from Americarna Invercargill, Matamata Panelworks tenth birthday open day and the Hot Rod Blowout for 2010. We head to the track and check out Round Five of the Century Yuasa Power Series and Round Six of the Central Muscle Car Series from Taupo. This special issue also comes with a couple of huge pull out posters for your garage wall, so don’t miss out.

All this plus the usual advice and technical information, readers’ rides and competitions to keep you up to date with all that’s happening on the NZ V8 scene. Pick up a copy now before they sell out!

Click here to subscribe to NZV8 magazine.