Fred Wagenhals has always been driven. To race, to invent, to thrive, to live.
The Paradise Valley, Arizona, resident and chairman and CEO of Ammo Inc. loves driving the four-wheel-drive Telluride he recently bought from Rusty Wallace Kia in Knoxville, Tennessee. A long-time friend and NASCAR Hall of Famer, Wallace was the 1984 NASCAR Cup series Rookie of the Year and, five years later, NASCAR Winston Cup champion.
Wagenhals also has a large painting in his Scottsdale Airpark office of actor and car enthusiast James Dean; he's standing next to the “#130” Porsche 550 Spyder Dean was killed in on September 30, 1955. Dean and his mechanic were on California State Route 466 (SR 46) while driving to Salinas for a racing event when a Cal Poly student made an ill-timed left turn in front of the Porsche. The mechanic and the student survived.
Among the many cars Wagenhals has owned in the last 50 years is a replica of his idol's final car. The actor had custom painter Dean Jefferies add the number and the words “Little Bastard” on the tail section of the meticulously crafted replica. “Jeffries painted the number and the script on my car, too,” Wagenhals says proudly.
In August this year, the 81-year-old Wagenhals traveled
