This Startup Is Sacrificing E46 BMWs to Make the Ultimate V8 Manual Wagon

Heading to SEMA this year will be one of the more refreshing small startup car companies we’ve seen in a long time. Strickland Motor Co. plans to eschew the modern trend of cyberpunk EV restomods for something far more traditional and enthusiast-minded: a V8-powered, rear-wheel-drive wagon with a manual transmission.

The Strickland SpeedWagon R is, on paper at least, everything enthusiasts say we want. It’s based on an E46 BMW 3 Series wagon chassis with a custom body and packs a Chevy LS under its hood. The transmission’s origin is unknown, but we know that it’s a six-speed ‘box. Strickland says the V8 makes 500 horsepower and gets from 0-60 mph in 3.6 seconds. Sounds perfect, right?

Sketches of the SpeedWagon R. Strickland Motor Co.

Unfortunately, Strickland doesn’t have photos of the actual car on its site at the moment. Instead, it’s got a few sketches of what the final product could look like, which unsurprisingly give off some serious BMW wagon vibes. Strickland shared photos of the new body’s build process with TopSpeed; given their work-in-progress nature, they’re hard to base an opinion on. But even setting aside the state of the development car we see there, when it comes to design, the SpeedWagon looks like it’s shaping up to be a long-roof E46 with an uninspired body kit.

If the result closely matches the illustrations, it could turn out decently. The quad headlights are cool, the rear diffuser is interesting on a five-door wagon, and the overall shape evokes BMW and Volvo wagons. The taillights are a tad boring, though.

All that said, Strickland is fresh on the scene and has everything to prove. If it can manage to turn up to SEMA with a show-stopping prototype that looks better than we can envision, that might drum up the funds to refine that custom bodywork and turn its dream into a reality.

Assuming Strickland does get its operation off the ground, it has a few other hot wagon ideas in the pipeline. Beyond this $150,000 build, there’s the “bespoke” made-to-order VelociWagon, which has a twin-turbocharged V8 (doesn’t say which, but I’m assuming the same LS V8) making 1,225 hp and keeping the manual transmission. Strickland claims it can hit 60 mph in 2.4 seconds and it will cost $405,000. It also has two cheaper “Enthusiast Editions” at “under $100,000.” They’ll have either V6 or V8 engines.

It will be interesting to see the SpeedWagon at SEMA, to get a sense of how real and far along this project is, and if Strickland can actually kick off deliveries by 2025 or 2026 as it hopes. The idea is great, and I dig the skunkworks nature of it, but until we see more, it’s just that—an idea.