Motoring on Tim Time

Street Rodder, July 1999

Even on the phone, Tim Allen’s motor is running.

Ramblin’ and lopin’ like a big V-8 muscle machine chuggin’ down Detroit’s Woodward Avenue, the Tool time thespian, who just finished an eight year run of Home improvement, charges his motoring memories with short throttle bursts of enthusiasm and exacting memories of cars and more cars.

“I always fantasized about cars- every type of car,” he recalls. “And I guess I owed a lot of that to my dad. He was always modifying the family station wagon. I remember these Ford wagons in the ‘60’s with aluminum manifolds, big four-barrels, dual exhausts. Heck, he even got hold of my grandmother’s Galaxie and put in a 390 hi-po kit. She didn’t know what was going on under there, but he sure must’ve.”

Allen grew up in Colorado. His dad dies when he was about 11 or 12, and when he was 13, he moved with his mom and brothers and sisters (seven boys and two girls) to her parents’ home in Birmingham, Michigan. Motor City went right to his motor head.

“It was definitely kid-in-the-candy-store time. I had an uncle who worked in Detroit. It was before AMT, but he’d come home with these models of prototypes and new cars. It was really a big deal. And then my two older brothers were model makers. My brother Dave was a real perfectionist; his models were really nice. He specialized in navy-blue cars with wire wheels. His ’65 Mustang—a model because at that time we really couldn’t afford a real ’65 Mustang—was a perfect jewel. I wasn’t really into the big Ts and highboy styles of that Frankie Avalon stuff at first. I was more into Gene Winfield and Big Daddy and Tony Nancy.

“I really know about cars courtesy of two magazines, Hot Rod and Road and Track, and hey, that’s like night and day. You couldn’t find two more divergent viewpoints about cars- you know, Road & Track with the upper-crust Jaguars and European machines. But I always like performance cars, race cars, Ferraris, GT Fords, Chaparrals.”

Mention Woodward Avenue, Motor City’s main line, and Allen stands on it. “I was 16 when the musclecar thing came on- right in the middle of Big Three country. AMC. GM. Chyrsler. GTO. Road Runner. Boss 351. There was a 340 Javelin that was smokin’ everyone. We’d all go out to Detroit Dragway, where anybody with Mom’s 390 Galaxie could be hero for a day. I remember that the competition got stiffer and stiffer. There was this guy named Mike Stepanian, biggest hot dog in the world, who had this big 454 Chevy with M/T tires and headers who was king of the hill out there.”

Allen grew up in a busy, boisterous house with his older brothers (“We were sleeping three to a room”), and with older brothers there were new cars in the scene. “One brother had a tricked-out 273 “Cuda like an S model, but not a real S—you know, the one with the little rectangular chrome exhaust pipes. That was fast. He added Shelby stripes and painted the wheel centers yellow—why, I'll never know. My older brother had a Corvair Corsa- I wrecked that car twice.”

These vehicles made an obvious impression on Allen, so much so that he’s collected some that recall these earlier years. “I have a complete [Don] Yenko Stinger,” he notes. “That thing will eat up V-8s.”

When it came time to go to college, Allen’s car craving had him looking west toward the Art Center College of Design in Pasdena, California (“where you actually got to design cars,” he exalted), but the exigencies of time, place, and money had him headed for Western Michigan University’s Center for Film, TV, and Broadcast.

“I needed a car to go to college and was working in a VW speed shop that summer [1962]—I like VWs—and I got hold of this Baja Bug, put in a transporter engine, which added 11 horsepower, did up the whole body, inverted sunroof and all that, then went off to college. And then winter came. The car was only about 85 percent finished—it was really tough to drive.”

From stand-up comedy in clubs to television performances and films, Tim Allen’s career soared through the ‘80s and into the ‘90s, but he never lost interest in his own brand of motor madness. He coupled his collecting with on-track racing skills, although he’s bluntly honest about his own limitations.

“I took my Skip Barber courses and though I would just love speed, high speed, but you know I’m still somewhat uncomfortable out there. At Bondourant, I learned to run at 180 to 190 mph and understand what that means, and how to handle it. I’m smart, not particularly fast. Attrition will take out most of the field, anyway.”

He’s been an integral part of Steve Saleen’s Mustang racing team and has a string of strong finishes in the SCCA World Challenge Series. He and Saleen even engineered a “what if” 302 Mustang project- a 600-plus-hp screamer that, by virtue of its 3.8-second 0-to-60-mph time, was once named by Road and Track as the fastest street machine in history. (“Unmanageable” is the only description he can muster.)

Over the years, Scuderia Allen has grown and flourished. There was a glass ’32 Magoo roadster that provided him a rolling platform for experimentation. He has a Ferrari Marinello daily driver, an Austin-Healy roadster, and a flat-head-powered ’46 Ford Convertible. He’s restoring a vintage ’63-64 Grand Sport Vette, has a hopped-up Ford Windstar minivan with ground effects and a supercharged engine, and is looking forward to conjuring his custom-car roots via a ’53 Chevy convertible awaiting the full Allen treatment.

And now this car, this Steve Moal roadster, the one he’s named “Licorice.” “Well, I saw the California V-8 Special in STREET RODDER [July ‘96] and called Steve. I told him that I wanted to buy that car, but it had been sold [to Northern California auto dealer Ted Stevens]. So I told him to build me another one with some of the same characteristics, but it had to be bigger.

“Steve’s got an unusual perspective. They’re a combination of half Sprint Car and IndyCar with old Alfa and Allard. This car is too much, though. Initially, I didn’t care for the exposed suspension, but I think it will grow on me. It’s everything I wanted, but it’s too nice. Now, my ’46 has lots of room, but this car has no room—it’s one-half Cobra 427 and one-half Harley-Davidson Sportster with that wild sound. It rides real nice, but this car is really our there. I can’t wait to see Leno and ask him, “What do you think I’ve got?”

At press time, Allen was putting miles on the Licorice streak. He even called builder Moal to tell him, “I know you’re not going to like this, but tough. I’m telling people I designed it. It gets lots of attention.”

And finally, how about car guys, real enthusiast, in the entertainment industry? “Well, it’s pretty amazing who’s into these things. I was at the Academy Awards when these two guys came up. They’d both won Oscars—a father-son team who’d won for film editing, I think. And here they are, Oscars tucked under their arms, talking to me about my fat-fendered Ford convert.”

So what’s next—after Home Improvement closes? He’s recently finished production on Disney’s Toy Story II, and begins production soon on a sci-fi adventure, Galaxy Quest. With the close of Home Improvement he’s taking a little time off, then doing a couple of endurance races—“I like road racing.” He has introduced a Tim Allen Signature Toll Line, where a portion of the profits are donated to children’s education and charitable programs.

The bell rings—stage call. Allen fires his “gotta-go” engine. RRR—gone!

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