New Dreams, New Goals, New Turbos – The Price Family Gives the ‘Shelia’s Dream’ Wagon a Boost for a 2025 Sick Summer Appearance
There are some cars that stand out in the crowd just a little more. Whether it’s because of performance, appearance or the story behind it all, some rides are just more prevalent in our minds.
From the first time we saw Robbie Price’s Mercury station wagon known as ‘Shelia’s Dream’, we knew it would be one of those cars, and now the Price family is working on more reasons to make us remember the wagon.
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As a quick refresher to when we first wrote about the wagon in Sick the Magazine HERE, the 1972 Mercury Marquis was not a popular choice when Robbie brought it home with his mom. “So of course, we had to name it ‘Sheila's Dream,’” Robbie told us.
As the Robbie and the family built the car over time, mom started to see the vision of Robbie’s love for the wagon. “She now loves it and none of us can imagine life without the car,” said Robbie.
When we first laid eyes on the car, it was via Facebook about a month before Sick Summer Presented by TBM Brakes in 2023. Your author personally met the ‘traveling family’ at one of the first checkpoints, with Jeremy Well, Jason Shrier, and father Howy Price among those taking advantage in the wagon’s spacious interior.
The wagon navigated the first Sick Summer successfully with a nitrous-fed 6-liter LS engine, backed with a Performabuilt 4L60E overdrive transmission, and a Haltech Nexus R5 controlling all the functions. The best lap the wagon delivered was a 11.43 at 118 mph on day four, in route to an 11.62 average in the popular Dial Your Own (DYO) class.
The wagon returned to Sick Summer in 2024, with some tweaks in place, and with the nitrous still flowing freely. An 11.04 at 119 mph time slip was collected on day one at Byron Dragway, and the wagon once again completed the week. Although Robbie collected a quartet of low 11-second time tickets, he wanted more.
For 2025, the Price wagon is making the change to turbocharged motivation, as a pair of units will replace the nitrous on the wagon. “We got a pair of Garrett G42 1200s,” said Howy. “Robbie's boss is Jordan Martin, and he set us up with them fortunately. They only made 2300 on his Viper, and he went bigger.”
Work is still progressing on making the change, with Nathan Schliem working on the latest stage with fabrication of the tubing for the turbos. “Someone is pretty excited right now,” said Howy. “It just might be me. Nathan is absolutely knocking this out of the park for us.”
How quick can Shelia’s Dream be when Sick Summer Presented by Motion Raceworks rolls around in 2025? This parachute shot might be an indication….
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine, Howy Price and Robbie Price.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com