100 Percent Traction

As winter grips us ever tighter in its chilly grasp, now’s a good time to rummage through photos from the previous year and pluck out anything we might have overlooked. For example, back in September, I went over to Ballston Spa, New York, to see the ATHS truck show at the fairgrounds, and came across this beast, a 1963 Walter CFGA owned by Bob Pfluger of Southold, New York, way out on the tip of Long Island. I can only venture wild guesses at how he got it from there to Ballston Spa, especially with the Walter’s payload – a 3,400hp Curtiss-Wright 18-cylinder radial aircraft engine once used, apparently, in a Lockheed Constellation.

As for the Walter itself, Bob’s signage states that it’s one of 26 CFGAs built using Walter’s shortest wheelbase and a 534-cu.in. Ford gas engine, and that it was used with a 26-foot snowplow to clear airport runways up and down the East Coast, no doubt aided by the four-wheel-drive and four-wheel-steering. Didn’t hear the Walter run while I was there, but I did get to see the Curtiss-Wright run – quite the crowd-attracting spectacle.