Horse Power and Mule Power

CULLMAN, Ala. (WBRC) - There are a few common phrases you hear often like ‘stubborn as a mule’ or ‘I feel the need for speed.’ In Cullman County, Ed Green knows both.

The mule is Matilda. Even when she acts like she’s not doing much, Ed says she’s thinking, “They’re very analytical. The think a lot about what they do before the do it, where a horse is a fight or flight animal and it’s usually flight, but a mule will think things over. That’s why people think a lot of times they’re stubborn but they’re actually being analytical about it. She’s in retirement. After she dropped out of school she went into retirement. I think everybody needs a mule for humility.”

As for the horsepower, Ed knows a lot about that, too.

“We build Power Glide racing transmissions. I’ve been building these transmissions for 40 years. Gives you a good feeling to be able to help other people race. It’s been a great side job and a great service to other racers.”

Simply put, Ed Green is into racing. Always has been.

“There is a huge drag racing community in Alabama and Alabama has some of the best drag racers anywhere. I started racing when I was 16 and never quit. I’ve never got over the disease. I won the track championship at Huntsville twice in 1993 and in 2007,” Ed recalls. “Came from winning the track champion in Huntsville in ‘93, went to Steele in their first year and won the track championship there in ‘94 and in ‘98.”

He’s won a lot and built quite a few cars, “I have a 67 Camaro that’s in the condition it was raced in. I have a 67 427 Corvette. We have a Little Varmint, a 60′s race car in original condition and we have a reproduction of The Goldenrod race car that was a famous car in these parts.”

And there is a favorite currently being overhauled, “The Vega’s going to be with me from now on because you dance with the partner that brought you there.”

So, while Matilda enjoys her retirement, Ed plans to just keep on racing, “Beats buying a bass boat. I tell my wife she’ll have something to sell at an estate sale and those bass boat people don’t have anything but lures hanging in the trees on Smith Lake.”

You’ve heard it said they don’t build them like they used to but that isn’t necessarily true. Ed Green still builds them like they used to. Still feeling the need for speed and still Absolutely Alabama.

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