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The Killer Cab: Jamie Otts’ Sinister Turbocharged 1955 Chevy
By
Andrew Wolf May 24, 2019
There was a time, long before Uber and Lyft and the convenience of mobile ride-sharing apps, that one in need of a ride would hail a bright yellow taxi cab — a 1955 Chevrolet, perhaps — that looked much like a tamer version of Jamie Otts’ familiar and fan-favorite Killer Cab.
The bright yellow cabs and the concept of flagging a car down from the sidewalk are rather antiquated in this high-tech, instant gratification era, and while Otts’ ’55 certainly looks the part, it is by no means archaic under the cloak of its factory steel bodywork.
Photography by Brian Hogan
Otts, who hails from Byhalia, Mississippi, situated on the outskirts of Memphis proper, christened the Killer Cab two years ago, when he was invited by race-boss JJ DaBoss to be a part of the Street Outlaws: Memphis cast. For the 46-year-old Otts, the cab was the latest in a long lineage of street and race-bred machines.
“I started racing when I was 15, 16 years old. I’ve lived in Mississippi most of my life, and here you can get a driver’s license at 15. My dad was a hot rodder — he had old Camaros, Chevelles. He was one of those old gearheads that would buy something with bent quarter panels and he’d fix them up. He raced dragsters and altereds, and funny cars and that’s what got me into this,” he explains. “I had a 355-powered Malibu and a ’71 big-block Chevelle that I drove to high school. I was street racing and just gradually getting into better cars. As my racing progressed I built a Mustang with a small-block Chevrolet that went 5.0’s, then had a ’67 Camaro leaf spring car that we drag-radial raced. Then I built a ’71 Nova for X275 that we went 4.50s with.”
Some of Otts’ Memphis-area buddies had formed what was known as Memphis Street Outlaws, a collective group of street and track racers who eventually inspired the Discovery Channel reality program of the same name. “They came to me and said they really wanted me to do this, and they talked me into it, so I started racing with those guys.” Otts bought and raced a ’68 Camaro with a Gene Fulton 632-inch big-block on nitrous with the Memphis group, later selling it to buy a ProCharger-boosted Mustang. “During that time, my buddies were telling me they were getting a TV show and that I needed to do this with them — they said we think you’ll be a stout guy on the team,” Otts shares.
I like the radial racing….over there, it’s either you’re good enough or you ain’t, there’s no middle-ground.
Knowing he’d need a more formidable chariot he could stuff a wide set of slicks under, Otts’ located and purchased a 1955 Chevrolet that famed chassis builder Wally Stroupe had constructed in the mid-1980s. Bright yellow in color, it quickly earned the nickname Cash Cab among his Memphis peers. Like the antique cabs of lore, it too was outdated — all steel with a box-tube chassis. Not a fan of its given name, Otts’ then-10-year-old son suggested they name it the Killer Cab, complete with a monster on its flanks.
With the nitrous-fed 632 for power, Otts had the car wrapped in a patina taxi cab theme and starred for two seasons on the Discovery Channel. But, a hardcore drag racer at his core, Otts was led away from the bright lights and the television cameras.