Were there suped up stage wagons in the old days?

I remember seeing one old west movie that had a stagecoach wagon race. it was really an unfair race, since one stagecoach only had four horses and the other had six. i guess you could compare that race to a modern day 4 cylinder engine to a 6 cylinder engine. not bad, huh?

I would assume so—I mean, they had them with eisenglass windows and fringe on top.

Yep. Rims on my wagon and turbo-charged horses. Neon-lit lanterns, etc. Those were the days…

@andrew touching…the surrey bit…

I think pioneers were too practical for that but look up “gypsy wagon” or Vardo on Google images and you will find some pretty damn “souped up” covered wagons.

You can get one and soup it up today!

I love this question. There are several articles in wikipedia about horse drawn vehicles, but this one was the most amusing a coupé was a closed four-wheel horse-drawn carriage, cut (coupé) to eliminate the forward-mounted, rear-facing passenger seats, with a single seat inside for two persons behind the driver, who sat on a box outside. If the driver had no roof over his head then it was a coupé de-ville.

Hey…suped up is an alternate! dang yall!

I wonder if any cars feature interiors or other parts that are still crafted by the same companies that made the finer wagons.

I’m sure there was a “Pimp My Wagon” show back in the day. People are always mixing art with machinery.

Butterfield Overland had the best stage coaches of the old west. Wells Fargo had better management, so they are still around.

The wheels of a pioneer wagon had to be sturdy and thicker than the “gussied up” slender wheels of the surrey and other “city” coaches. The springs and body had to be tougher and were built for rugged off-trail use.

They ventured out onto open territory much like a modern SUV.
(You so rarely see a Corvette blazing a new trail across rut filled wild lands.)

That being said I am sure that there was personalization beyond the whitewashed “Oregon or Bust”

Stage wagons also were built tough with thicker wheels but usually ventured on established routes so more grace was taken with the design. They wanted a bit more personal comfort for passenger trade. They had different paint jobs from plain to fancy.

Here is an interesting source.

The stage coach in the images was a Hollywood prop and is not authentic but the freight wagon is.

Aren’t car styles today named after old carriage styles?

I have often wondered why the Driver and Shotgun Rider didn’t have a cover in case of inclement weather.

See that Wells Fargooooooooooooooo.