Wicked Wednesday: 1966 Dodge Town Wagon Power Wagon Might Be the Largest Station Wagon Ever Made
Freshly restored Dodge Town Wagon Power Wagon is a massive V8-powered, 4-wheel-drive, 2-door beast for when you need to do real work.
When we are looking for subject vehicles for this weekly series, we try to find the most wicked Dodge vehicles out there. It typically leads us to restomods, or drag cars, or some other way over the top machine. A bone stock Dodge rarely makes the cut. Especially one that has a top speed of maybe 60 mph. However, this 1966 Dodge Town Wagon Power Wagon might be stock, but it is about as wicked as they come. It represents a time when trucks were trucks. They were not bought for luxury or for taking the family on a trip to the lake. These monsters were built to do the rough stuff.
This week’s “Wicked Wednesday” is all about this 1966 Dodge Town Wagon Power Wagon owned by Steve Hofmann. You may not recognize Hofmann, but you sure know who he works for. Hofmann is responsible for transporting all the vehicles for Jay Leno. On a recent video posted on Jay Leno’s Garage YouTube channel Leno and Hofmann discuss the details of this green hulk of a Power Wagon. If you love these vehicles as much as we do you are going to really enjoy this walkthrough.
Saved by Leno
This 1966 Dodge Town Wagon Power Wagon had been sitting in a yard in Colorado slowly rusting to nothing. The woman who owned it reached out to Leno and asked if he would save it. She said that she would give Leno the Power Wagon for free on the condition that he restore it. Leno then contacted his buddy Hofmann who he knew always loved these things. He made Hofmann the same deal, he could have the Dodge, but he needed to promise to restore it. Hofmann jumped on that offer. Mr. Leno, if you happen to be reading this, I always wanted a 1970 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda Convertible. Should you find one that needs restoring look me up!
End of the Line
The 1966 Dodge Town Wagon Power Wagon was basically the end of the line when it came to this style of Power Wagon. These were built for severe service work. Working on the trails of national parks or shuttling guests to a remote ski lodge, or ambulance service and so forth. These were not built for comfort; they were built to be tough and practical. And they did that job very well. But by 1966 other manufacturers were building SUVs that were much more family friendly and the Power Wagon as the world knew it was coming to an end.
Equipment
This Power Wagon is equipped with the optional 318 cubic inch V8 engine that was good for 200 horsepower. Hofmann restored it to stock specification. No big upgrades here. The truck also has four-wheel-drive which back in the day was reserved for mostly work vehicles or something that was truly to be used off-road. And to get the vehicle into or out of 4WD mode, you had to get out and manually lock or unlock the hubs. That is basically it when it comes to features on this Power Wagon. You are not going to impress your buddies with a lot of gizmos. You will impress them with the rugged utilitarian nature of this thing.
Inside
Three rows of seats and a spare tire. What else do you want? Seriously, there is not much more to the interior than that. Forget headed seats, or navigation, this Power Wagon does not even have a radio. There is a standard Dodge truck steering wheel and a big 4-speed stick shift up front. Aside from that, there is not much to talk about on the inside. It is simply a capsule for hauling people.
On the Road
Leno gets the Town Wagon Power Wagon out on the road and then the true nature of the beast becomes apparent. It is slow, heavy, and huge. It is as aerodynamic as a brick and weighs well over 7,000 pounds. It is not a point and squirt type of machine. And despite the sound deadening material that Hofmann added during the restoration it still makes quite a bit of noise inside. It is like riding around in a steel drum. That all being said, it is awesome. Just look at this thing on the road. What a blast. Hofmann tried to register it with the DMV as an SUV but because it has only 2 doors it is actually classified as a station wagon. For those that thought an old Buick Roadmaster was a big station wagon, it would be dwarfed parked next to this thing.
Video
The video below does an excellent job of telling the story of this wicked Town Wagon Power Wagon. If you want to get all the details and see and hear what this beast can do on the open road, you have to give it a watch. If nothing else, it will really drive home the point of how far the Power Wagon has come of the last 56 years.
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