Please note Bob McClurg’s comment on The Little Red Wagon.
All I know is what Golden told me when I wrote his press kit.

What I meant was not to disparage. I am pretty sure Golden would have been glad to take the half million and walk away from the barnstorming life he was leading.

Glenn C.

The half-million dollar-plus selling price for the Little Red Wagon at RM’s recent auction didn’t bring a rueful smile to Bill Golden’s face. Instead it left him with an ear-to-ear grin of satisfaction. Yes, the price is over-the-top, but that happens at auctions, and that rather bizarre little truck was a favorite of drag-racing fans for more than a quarter century.

Golden was a darn good engineer and a consummates howman. His quarter-mile, wheels-up sprints to three-digit speeds were no accident. The truck was originally built for competition in NHRA’s factory experimental class, but it transfered weight too aggressively to be competitive. Golden came up with the idea to turn it into a wheelstanding exhibition machine. He devised a rear braking system that allowed him to steer the vehicle with the brakes. With a lot of experimentation he engineered gearing and engine modifications that optimized torque at a moderate engine speed. A viewing portal in the floor provided a good view of the track with the windshield pointing skyward. In its final iteration, that strange truck could turn a quarter mile faster than a 500 horsepower Corvette or Viper on just the rear wheels.

Bill “Maverick” Golden entertained literally millions of drag fans
over a period of some thirty years. Yes, he crashed a couple versions of the truck and was seriously injured at least once. But “Maverick” Golden was a tough and fearless ex-Marine, and he was still riding high at an age when most of us are thinking about retirement. He’s celebrating that action price, and the smile is as real as the man himself.

Best,
Paul Stenquist