Last updated on September 30, 2026
Today’s car is Gary Wales’s 1916 REOAK Speed Wagon, appropriately named Lucky Buck, which I photographed at Amelia Dalgaard’s 2nd Annual Freak of the Week Car Show in Topanga, CA. It started life as a 1916 REO Speed Wagon and has been transformed into a six-wheeled creation with a hand-built mahogany body. Power comes from an Oakland six-cylinder engine with the original REO running gear retained, while an additional rear axle gives the car its six-wheel configuration.
Amelia Dalgaard’s 2nd Annual Freak of the Week Car Show, co-sponsored by Scott Martin and Caruso Classics, brings together cars with character and people with personality, celebrating the weird, the wacky, and the wonderfully original. Gary’s six-wheeled REO certainly fit right in.
REO Motor Car Company was founded by automotive pioneer Ransom E. Olds, whose initials gave the company its name. Introduced in 1915, the REO Speed Wagon was an early light commercial truck designed to carry loads while traveling faster than many trucks of the period. Remaining in production through 1953, Speed Wagons served as delivery trucks, buses, tow trucks, dump trucks, fire trucks, ambulances, and even hearses.
Gary Wales is well known for restoring and creating unusual automobiles. He specialized in Rolls-Royce and Bentley restorations and in 1984 won the Great American Race in a 1936 Bentley Boattail Speedster he created from the remains of a mudslide-damaged Bentley. He later became known for his massive La Bestioni (The Beast) creations, often transforming derelict early fire trucks into one-of-a-kind prewar-inspired speedsters like this one. His renowned La Bestioni creations have also been featured on Jay Leno’s Garage.
A few years ago, an old friend of Gary’s arrived at his home with the remains of the 1916 REO on a trailer. The truck had reportedly spent about 55 years on a ranch in the Mojave Desert, and while the body was badly deteriorated, the chassis had survived remarkably well. His friend wanted $1,500 for it, but Gary wasn’t interested in that pile of rust until he learned the deal included four new tires worth about $700 each. Gary looked at the old truck, and ideas began to take shape. He told his friend, “I’ve got an idea, but it’s going to take six tires.” His friend agreed and threw in the two additional tires.
With the remains of the REO now his, Gary discarded what was left of the badly deteriorated body and began working with the surviving chassis. Combining the REO chassis and Oakland engine, he calls his creation the “REOAK.” Gary’s idea for those two extra tires became a third axle at the rear, giving the REO its unmistakable six-wheel appearance. Rather than simply following the lines of an early truck, however, Gary looked to a car more than a century newer for inspiration. The long tapered rear body was influenced by the 2020 McLaren Speedtail, but instead of carbon fiber, Gary created his version in mahogany.
Covering the mahogany body are approximately 1,200 brass screws, each carefully aligned. Gary readily admits they serve little structural purpose; he used them because, as he put it, “it just looks cool.” The additional rear wheels add another cool factor and are free to pivot, allowing them to follow the direction of the front wheels.
Gary also devised an unusual way to reach the engine. By changing the location of the hood hinge from the top of the panel to the bottom, the entire hood can be opened in seconds, exposing both the engine and the lower mechanical components. At the Grand National Roadster Show, Gary said he asked hundreds of people whether they had ever seen an arrangement like it, and according to him, no one had.
Gary’s imagination extends to the smaller details as well. The lower dashboard and cabin foot side panels began life as part of a coffee table he found on Marketplace, while the “Lucky Buck” refers to the 181 silver dollars placed throughout the car. Rather than ordering everything new, Gary looks for objects he can repurpose, seeing possibilities in things most people would never consider automotive parts.
From the remains of a 1916 work truck that Gary initially wanted nothing to do with came a six-wheeled creation unlike anything the original builders at REO could have imagined. Whether it is at Freak of the Week, a Cars & Coffee event, or simply out on the road, there is little chance of Gary’s REO passing unnoticed. For Gary, however, the reason for building something so unusual is much simpler: “If it makes you smile, that’s why I built it.”
