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I test drove the Munster Koach
This is the wild chrome-dipped, padded, tucked and rolled, $20,000 hopped-up bomb that's been built for the Munsters to drive on CBS Thursday nights. There's only one way to describe it -
BLAM!
The minute I grabbed that 9-inch metal-flaked deep dish and that 30-inch Posi Shift stick with four on the floor and felt the rum-rum-rum of those 300 beasts in the Ford Cobra mill, I knew I was in for the ride of my life.
Just as if it didn't have enough beans as it was, extra muscle was provided by Isky cams, a ram thrust manifold supplying 10 chrome carbs and funnel racing headers.
All at once those 11-inch-wide racing slicks out back hit the pavement, and I was dragging, with the Pirelli snow doughnuts up front leading the way.
Because of the 133-inch frame and direct vertical steering the Koach corners hard, but the front dropped axle and split radius bars held by T springs and the rear Z'd frame with Model A springs and master stabilizers take care of most road conditions.
I didn't get it rolling up to the 150 mph it's capable of, but it does test out according to specs - 0 - 30 in 3.4, 0 - 45 in 7.2, 0 - 60 in 10 flat and 0 - 80 in 15.4. And, considering it's size and weight, the binders do a boss job when you want to stop.
The Koach is big and heavy because, to make it 2 - 3 split into three compartments (including a lab for Grandpa), a
fiber-glassed 1927 Model T bucket was grafted into a six-door touring roadster.
The double-stretched glass tub is wiped with luster-coat high gloss over 40 coats of black golden
afflair of pearl and trimmed in gold powder with diamond-shaped tufts and buttons, red velvet coffin liner and ermine rugs inside - plus such optional goodies as a stereo tape recorder, three TV sets, an electric shoe polisher, a blender and two antique French phones. Gold-plated radiator and ornamental coffin handles on the hood, spider-web headlights and gas side lanterns give it a little extra class.
I dragged around North Hollywood for an hour or so, and by the time I got the Koach back to the shop, I was dragging.
(-Article originally published in
TV Guide magazine 12/19/64. No copyright infringement is intended.-)
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