The Bumper Thumper

Andy and Cristy Reynolds’ 1979 Malibu Wagon.

- John Gatliff

Andy and Cristy Reynolds’ 1979 Chevrolet Malibu wagon can shock even the most jaded dragstrip announcer into a hyperventilating frenzy. Spied in the staging lanes, it harkens back to when 150hp station wagons shuttled youngsters back and forth to school, scouts, and soccer. Before the average family truckster became a soulless, capsule-shaped sedative, lifelong gearheads like Andy Reynolds daydreamed in the school drop-off line about turning “Mom’s Taxi” into a sano, wild, wheel-carrying, strip-ripper worthy of a Roach or Ed Roth T-shirt. Sadly, most of those childhood dreams eventually dissolved into a haze of lighter, quicker, and more popular ponycars, but not all of them.

Fast-forward into the waterbox and the Reynolds’ long roof may still remind some grizzled, big-voice types of the midalphabet stockers who used to exploit “soft indexes” with big, heavy wagons. The announcer fumbles through his rehearsed shtick for something to jazz the crowd with during the upcoming eons he expects the wagon’s lap to take. But then Andy shocks the consciousness with another moonshot launch: “…AND HE PUTS IT ON THE BUMPER!”

Built mostly in a two-car garage by Andy and Cristy themselves, the Reynolds’ 421-cube, old-school, small-block-powered, nitrous-hoovering G-Body proves you do not need a Pro Mod to scorch the no-prep scene. “I’ve always liked being different,” Andy says. Fueled by whipping his Mom’s old Malibu wagon back in high school, Andy clears out the somnolent cobwebs from his day job as a Texas dealership tech by wrenching on this 950hp, 8-second bumper dragger.