Digging Up The DRAG-U-LA

Remember some months back when that ever-lovable ghoul, Herman Munster, asked old Uncle George Barris for a set of wheels? The result (shudder!) was the creation of the Munster Koach – and the World, Hollywood and the L.A. Freeway have never been the same! The $18,000 price tag was enough to send Herman’s TV producers screaming through the streets. What with Herman at the wheel, anything could happen.

Well, insisting that there’s no ghoul like an old ghoul, and not wanting to be outdone by his silly son-in-law, Grandpa asked for a little special something of his own. Nothing special, you understand; just a musty, damp old pine box for a retired vampire. But Grandpa under-estimated the wild mind of George B. George is the kind of guy who goes all out for a friend. And for Gramps, he really outdid himself. The Drag-U-La is no pine box.

It’s a coffin, alright. But when George dug it up, so to speak, he added a trim of royal purple velvet silk and a 360 CID Mustang engine that’s alive and kicking with 350 h.p. And racing through the graveyard, it gets an unearthly quarter mile per gallon of embalming fluid (eck!).

Made from fiberglass by Owens-Corning, the body (o’ well), finished in antique gold, rests peacefully atop a tube frame chassis. Up front are imported Speedsport English buggy wire wheels, riding on four inch Italian tires. The solid brass radiator came from Radiator Dynamics and the grille is a marble gravestone, with the inscription: "Born 1367 – Died ?" (just part of the Barris touch). The racing slicks are 11 inch Firestones, mounted on specially made ten-inch deep Reynolds aluminum Rader drag wheels. And when Grandpa is stretched out under the bubble, and the whole thing starts to howl, it’s a sight and sound to make your hair turn white, your teeth fall out and your gums run all the way home/

The other-worldly howl comes from the organ pipe exhaust system. And George claims the pipes are tuned (I believe it!). For the record, other goodies include dual four-barrel carbs, with a Ram-thrust MT manifold and a bat-shaped forced-air scoops. The embalming fluid is delivered by a high powered Dupree Chrome Dome electric fuel pump. And to add to the funerial theme (like it needs it?), there are antique carriage lamps fore and aft, and solid silver spiders on the hub caps (better keep an eye on ‘em, Grandpa!)

(Excerpted from "Model Car Science" January 1966)

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