TGP29 | Glenn Wallace Went All-In

How many engines have you built this year?

As of November 19th, Glenn Wallace had built 155.

Let me put that another way. 46 weeks into the year, that’s more than three a week. If you divide 155 engines by the 322 total days already passed the night we had our call, that’s a new engine every other day. And get this—that’s only Mitsubishi 4G63s. He built several other engines this year, too.

As if that isn’t impressive enough, this dude walked away from college to pursue his dream of a career in motorsport. (His dad wasn’t exactly thrilled that my name came up in THAT discussion.) He started at the bottom. He worked his way up. And he has much to show for it.

Today, beyond building hundreds of race engines a year, he’s also out there supporting 3,000 horsepower monsters in the field and pushing the limits of his own project vehicle when he actually gets a couple hours for himself.

This is the real, deal, folks. Figure out what you want to do with your life and go all in.

Glenn Wallace is a gearhead project.

Listen to TGP29 here:

Note: The audio may not reflect the correct episode number or link. Brian lost count of episodes so we had to re-number them. 

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT IN TGP29

WABAC: How Glenn and I met at the original Hammars event back in 2007.

We’re all living busy lives full of responsibility and whatnot. And yet, we’re all pretty much just extras or supporting characters in each others’ lives. I really, REALLY like Glenn’s story. The kid who decided to skip college and get right to work on his motorsport dream. He started at the bottom, worked his way up, and now works on race cars for a living.

Looking back to the decision to NOT go (back) to college. What was he thinking? Why? How did he make the decision? What were the consequences? (I seem to recall a message from Greg asking me WTF I told his son about college.)

What were those first years in the field like? Where did he start? What did he do? How did he make the most of it? How did he make sure he was prepared to jump at the right opportunity?

And how did things evolve from there? Working his way up, etc.?

Getting back to the future, I remember being at the Shootout in 2017. Glenn was burning the candle at both ends, trying to get the first stock-body Evo IX into the 7s or something. He was talking RTs, 60-foot times, and trap speeds with the 2GNT OGs—like he’d been drag racing for decades.

What happened to that car? Didn’t they coast to an 11-second ET after running the second half of the track on pure nitrous or something?

We talk a bit about the kind of work he’s doing these days—at the track, at the shop.

Life is a build thread. Looking back on his career since high school, how well does he think it parallels the classic project car build thread? If life like is like a project vehicle, how important is the body of work done up to this point to the future?

What’s Glenn working toward next? And where can people find him these days?

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