My pick for Racer of the Week is Wayne Allman, from near Stratford on Avon , England. Wayne was recommended to me by our friend and former Racer of the Week, Kirsten vanCroonenborgh. Thanks, Kirsten!
Wayne is an incredibly talented and creative fabricator, engine builder and automotive artist. I’ve visited his Intergalactic Custom Shop page and saw the work that he’s done, and it is some of the finest work I’ve ever seen. He is the owner, builder, tuner and driver of the “Mental Breakdown”, a one-of-a-kind VW Bulli Mk II dragster. He’s a very popular and respected racer and personality in UK Drag Racing, and it’s an honor to feature him tonight.
Wayne, age 52, started going drag racing back in the late 70s as a kid. He kept hearing loud engines every few weeks and one day his brother and he jumped on their bicycles and went to look for the loud noise. They found Long Marston Drag strip. They let them in for whatever pocket money they had between them. Wayne was bitten by the drag racing bug that day.
When Wayne got his driving license, his friends and he would go down to Long Marston or Avon Park, as it was called next , and would race their street cars at night until they got chased off by the owner or someone. They’d be back a few weeks later. His first official trip down the street was in around 1991 at Avon Park again , at a run-what-ya-brung where a friend was testing his Vmax with Nitrous (which ran a 9 on street tyres without a wheelie bar) so Wayne thought he’d have a go his my beach buggy. He ran a 17.2 @75 ish !
Wayne did an apprenticeship doing mechanics, body work and fabrication and started building building his old roof chopped , pillarless bug when he was about 24 which got magazine featured and won a show. He rebuilt it in the late 90s with a 460 big block Ford in the front. The car was street legal and ran low 11s. When a friend made him an offer he couldn’t refuse, it went, and Mental Breakdown which he’d already started building became a lot more serious.
He built the chassis to sfi 2.1a spec. It’s really a very short nosed dragster chassis with a large crumple zone at the front and Wayne sits in the back of the cab - the crew cab bit.
The body is all steel. Wayne stretched it from a single cab truck into a crew cab to get his feet behind the centreline of the front axle for the sfi tag. It has a 135” wheel base , powered by a 526ci blown hemi, with a Keith Black stage 7 raised cam block, Bryant Crank, MGP rods, Arias pistons ,Dart fuel heads, a 14-71 blower , a 3-speed CS1 Lenco, and a Crowerglide clutch. Wayne built the engine at work in his office, as he decided he needed an engine building room more than an office.
Mental Breakdown is pretty heavy being all metal -2800 lbs , he looks front heavy but weight distribution is 49% front , 51% rear ,
Wayne painted the body work in his workshop . It’s Gold kandy over flake with ghost flames and stars , raspberry kandy panels over silver flake with copper leaf lettering, which was his first attempt and cost only £30!
Getting his license in MB, Wayne ran a 7.67 1/4 on his first full pass and his best so far is a 7.10 @196mph. He said he’s trying for 6s when things get back to normal!
Wayne has his own business (The Intergalactic Custom Shop ), building cool stuff from Drag cars, tube chassis, roll cages, hand made body panels, etc. He’s currently building an Outlaw Anglia Van like a scaled down pro mod, with a twin turbo big block in an aluminum body. Life is good.
Wayne said he’d like to wish everyone well during these strange times . He says “Stay safe everyone and don’t forget Drag Racing is Far Out !!!”
Wayne, we wish you good luck, safe racing and the best of times in the future!