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Drag-U-La From “The Munsters” Is For Sale

This is the “Drag-U-La,” a coffin-based drag racer that was designed by Tom Daniel then built by George Barris for The Munsters, a 1960s era TV series about a family of relatively benign monsters that lived an American suburban life.

If you grew up watching TV in the 1960s, or reruns in the 1970s and 1980s, then The Munsters will already be familiar to you. It was a staple of the rerun circuit for decades despite the fact that the original show only ran for three years from, 1964 to 1966.

Fast Facts – Drag-U-La From The Munsters

• Drag-U-La was built using a real fiberglass coffin mounted to tubular steel, front-engined dragster chassis.
• The car was fully functional and made numerous runs (and you can see in the footage below), apparently when it was built it had 350 hp and a very low curb weight, so 1/4 mile times were likely decent.
• Drag-U-La first featured in the TV show, it was then used again in the 1966 movie “Munsters, Go Home!”
• In all, Barris Kustom built five examples of Drag-U-La, the car you see here was the final one made.

Hot Rod Herman

Drag-U-La was originally built to feature in the May 1965 episode of The Munsters titled Hot Rod Herman.

This episode was likely a way to attract drag racing fans to the show, drag racing in the United States was experiencing explosive growth at the time and many people spent their weekends down at the strip.

Above Video: This footage from “The Munsters” shows the storyline featuring Drag-U-La.

The premise of Hot Rod Herman was that Herman Munster, the Frankenstein character, had lost the Munster Koach (the family car) in a bet at the drag strip that went awry.

Grandpa Munster and Herman then spent the next week in the garage building Drag-U-La, so they could take it down to the drag strip and win back the Munster Koach.

In reality of course, the Drag-U-La vehicles that were built were made at Barris Kustom in California under the watchful eye of George Barris, undoubtably the most famous movie car creator in history.

Both Drag-U-La and the Munster Coach were designed by Tom Daniel who worked with Barris at the time, Daniel would design over 80 cars over the course of his career, some full scale and some as scale models for Monogram.

Building Drag-U-La

The biggest difficulty that the team at Barris Kustoms faced when developing Drag-U-La was where to source an authentic coffin.

The car uses a real drag racing chassis and running gear, and is apparently capable of impressive 1/4 mile times by the standards of the era.

As it happens, it was illegal to sell a coffin without a death certificate in California at the time, however the resourceful Richard “Korky” Korkes, Barris’s project engineer, managed to secure a deal under the table with a funeral home in North Hollywood.

Korkes struck the deal, paid in cash and then left the funeral home empty handed. He returned later that night with some colleagues to collect the fiberglass coffin that had been discretely left around the back of the funeral parlor.

The coffin was mated to a real tubular steel, front-engined dragster chassis, Barris and his team then cut out two sections of the top and fitted a plexiglas bubble. The car was powered by a 289 cubic inch Ford V8 said to be capable of 350hp and topped by two four-barrel carburetors mounted on a Mickey Thompson Ram-Thrust intake manifold.

A pipe organ-like exhaust was then developed with four pipes on each side exiting vertically with slash cut tips at descending heights, a parachute was affixed to the back, antique lamps were mounted up front as headlights, and a marble gravestone was fitted up front – said to be Grandpa Munster’s license plate “from the Old Country.”

As with many dragsters of the time, the driver was sitting with their crotch pressed up against the differential. You would want to pray the diff didn’t explode.

When it was completed the car was not only functional, but apparently it was genuinely quick. Barris Customs would build five of them in total for use in the TV series and later in the 1966 movie “Munsters, Go Home!”

Some of them spent decades in museums, some went to private collections, and one ended up suspended from the ceiling at Planet Hollywood in Atlantic City.

The example you see here is due to be offered for sale in January through Mecum Auctions, it’s being offered with no reserve and you can click here if you’d like to read more about it or register to bid.

Images: Carol Duckworth courtesy of Mecum Auctions

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Rare Garage Find – 1 Of 4 Ever Built: The Jaguar XK140 By Ghia

It’s believed that just four examples of the Jaguar XK140 were bodied by Ghia, an Italian coachbuilding firm responsible for some of the most beautiful cars of the era.

Of the four cars that had bodies built by Ghia this one is the most unique as it features modernizations applied by Ghia after it was initially built – the grille was changed in 1956 and then in 1959 after some front end damage the front of the car was redesigned – leaving it looking distinctly different from its siblings.

Fast Facts – The Jaguar XK140 By Ghia

• The Jaguar XK140 was introduced in 1954 as a replacement for the outgoing Jaguar XK120, a difficult task due to the popularity of the earlier Jaguar.
• Jaguar engineers were careful to keep the much-loved styling very similar to the XK120, they added a series of refinements including more room for taller drivers, improved suspension, a more powerful engine, rack and pinion steering, and improved brakes.
• Power is provided by a 3.4 liter Jaguar XK straight-six engine with double overhead cams and either 190 or 210 bhp depending on final specification.
• As the XK140 could be ordered as a powered rolling chassis a small number had custom bodies fitted built by coachbuilders, including four that were made by Carrozzeria Ghia of Italy with design work completed by Giovanni Michelotti.

The Jaguar XK140 – Origins

The Jaguar XK140 had big shoes to fill when it was introduced in 1954, the earlier Jaguar XK120 had been the fastest production car in the world when it was first offered to the public in 1948, and it boasted celebrity owners including Clark Gable – arguably the biggest movie star in the world at the time.

This is how the car looked originally, before the front was redesigned in 1959.

Rather than attempting to reinvent the wheel with the development of the XK140, Jaguar engineers and designers instead focussed on improving the minor flaws in the XK120. The suspension and brakes were improved, the engine was tweaked for a little additional power, and the body was slightly modified to make room for taller drivers.

Perhaps the only downside to the XK140 was this conservative approach to modifying the design, the automotive world had moved a long way since the 1940s when the XK120 was designed, the XK140 did appear a little dated to some.

As is always the case, the car looked fantastic to many others and the model proved to be such a success for Jaguar that they would release another model in the series with similar design later, the XK150 first released in 1957 and sold until 1961 when it was replaced by the E-Type.

Ordering A New XK140

In the 1950s you could order your new XK140 as either a roadster, a drophead coupe, or a fixed head coupe. The roadster has a simple folding roof, the drophead has a more substantial folding roof offering better weather protection, and the fixed head is a tin-top coupe.

From 1969 onwards the car was raced extensively in vintage competition, turning in good results in part due to the light body and high-performance 3.8 liter XK engine.

Both manual and automatic transmissions were offered, this was a first for a Jaguar sports car and helped make the car more approachable for people who typically shied away from dealing with clutches and manual shifting.

The XK140 is capable of a top speed in the region of 125 mph and the 0 to 60 mph time is 8.4 seconds, both highly respectable figures for the mid-1950s – as you may expect from an automaker who already had a slew of Le Mans wins under its belt in the 1950s, all using a modified version of the same straight-six 3.5 liter XK engine.

The Coachbuilt XK140s

One benefit of the body-on-chassis design of the XK140 was the fact that it could be ordered as a powered rolling chassis and sent off to a coachbuilder for a custom body – typically in Italy. Ghia and Zagato both built their own bodies for the model, and both were vastly different from the body offered by Jaguar.

The Ghia bodies were designed by Giovanni Michelotti, a man who would become one of the most influential automobile designers of his age. Interestingly he would design dozens of British cars over subsequent years.

Unlike the original Jaguar XK design, the Michelotti body was distinctly Italian, looking perhaps more like a Maserati from the era than anything made in the British Isles.

This is how the car looks now, after spending the better part of 40 years in a garage and only coming to light recently.

The car you see here is one of these four Ghia-bodied vehicles but unlike the other three, this one returned to Ghia after a minor accident in 1959, as mentioned above, and received a new more modern front end.

These Ghia-bodied cars were made from aluminum alloy rather than the stamped steel used by Jaguar, alloy being a common coachbuilding material as it’s easier to work by hand and it results in lighter vehicles. In this case the Ghia XK140 weighs 100 kilograms or 220 lbs less than the equivalent XK140 production car.

In 1969 the car was bought by a new owner who wanted to take full advantage of this slightly lower weight and the racing heritage of 1950s Jaguars. He had a high-performance 3.8 liter Jaguar XK engine fitted, with a D-Type head and triple twin-choke Weber carburetors offering notably increased performance.

He then raced the car extensively from 1969 onwards in historic events, wining races at circuits like Monza, and even beating a Ferrari 250 TDF on one occasion.

The car was parked up in 1979 and it’s remained garaged ever since and unused, it now requires a full restoration as you can tell by the images, and it’s being offered by Bonhams with a price guide of $230,000 – $350,000 USD.

If you’d like to read more about this unusual British/Italian Jaguar or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.

Images courtesy of Bonhams

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Moto Guzzi V7 III Custom by Vagabund Moto

This is a Moto Guzzi V7 III that has been comprehensively rebuilt by the Austrian team over at Vagabund Moto, a European custom motorcycle garage with a global reputation.

This build began when the owner of this bike, a relatively new 2019 V7 III, approached Paul and Philipp at Vagabund and started a conversation about what they could do with it to make it a little more unique.

Fast Facts – The Moto Guzzi V7 III + Vagabund Moto

• The original Moto Guzzi V7 first appeared in 1971 with styling and specifications that are startlingly similar to the modern version of the model, much to the relief of the Moto Guzzi faithful.
• Power is provided by a longitudinally mounted V-twin engine with a swept capacity of 748cc, two valves per cylinder are actuated by pushrods, and the modern version has a 6-speed transmission and 52 hp at 6,200 rpm.
• The V7 III falls into the same modern classic category as the Triumph Bonneville, the BMW Rnine T, the Harley-Davidson Sportster, and the Ducati Sport Classic models.
• Vagabund Moto was founded back in 2015 and in the years since they’ve made a name for themselves designing custom motorcycles, apparel, motorcycle helmets, art installations, and more.

The Moto Guzzi V7 III

The Moto Guzzi V7 III is one of those modern motorcycles that very deliberately looks like it could have been built decades ago.

Some call them retro and some call them modern classics, at the end of the day they’re motorcycles designed for people who aren’t drawn to modern bikes for one reason or another.

This Moto Guzzi custom has excellent fit and finish, looking like it could be an official concept bike.

The modern classic sector of the global motorcycle marketplace is booming and it has been for years, decades even, with bikes like the V7 III being a common sight on the streets of cities from Sydney to San Diego.

When Moto Guzzi released the first V7 back in 1971 they had no way of knowing that the model line would still be in production 50 years later, albeit in completely revised form. The V-twin used in those first V7s was based on a design created by Italian engineer Giulio Cesare Carcano that was originally intended for automobile use – in the back of a sporting version of the Fiat 500.

Sadly the engine was never used due to the factory’s inability to meet the required production volume, but its displacement would be increased to 754cc so it could be used in the unusual three-wheeled, three-wheel drive Moto Guzzi Autoveicolo da Montagna 3×3.

Not long after this, Italy’s Highway Police launched a tender for a new motorcycle that could cover 100,000 kms with the lowest maintenance costs. As Carcano’s twin-cylinder engine has originally been developed for the rigors of automobile use it was perfectly suited to the challenge.

As a result of this police tender, the first Moto Guzzi V7 prototypes were developed in the mid-1960s and in 1966 mass production of the new motorcycle began. Over the following years a number of different versions of the V7 were built including the popular V7 Ambassador and the V7 Sport.

The style of the bike was designed to mix the classic cafe racer and scrambler genres.

It would be the Moto Guzzi V7 Sport that would lay the groundwork for the modern version you see here, in fact many people have a hard time telling the vintage version and the modern version apart.

The Moto Guzzi V7 III By Vagabund Moto

When the two-man team at Vagabund Moto were contacted by the owner of this 2019 V7 III they saw an opportunity to work with a different kind of twin cylinder motorcycle – many of their previous builds have been based on air-cooled BMW boxers.

For this build they wanted to stick close to their minimalist design aesthetic while also bringing out the best in the Italian V-twin. It was decided to go for a hybrid approach somewhere between the stripped back design of a modern cafe racer and classic scrambler styling, with a more upright seating position and chunky tires.

Vagabund Moto designed and 3D printed a new tail section, fork covers, and a headlight housing. A Shin Yo LED brake light was added in the rear in between dual Bitubo shock absorbers and above the new exhaust with a modified BMW R100R pre-silencer.

A new Alctanara-trimmed seat was created and installed alongside the modified fuel tank. The completed bike looks like it could be an official Moto Guzzi concept bike from a show like EICMA, and the owner has now decided to sell it.

Collecting Cars is currently offering this one-of-a-kind Moto Guzzi for sale in a live online auction (at the time of writing), and you can click here of you’d like to read more about it or register to bid.

Images courtesy of Collecting Cars

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from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/moto-guzzi-v7-iii-vagabund-moto/
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The Daimler SP250 – An Ex-British Police High-Speed Pursuit Car

The Daimler SP250 is a V8-powered British sports car famous for a number of things in classic car circles, the three most common of which are that the car is powered by an excellent 2.5 liter V8 engine, it was used by some British metropolitan police departments as a high speed pursuit vehicle, and that it’s widely considered to be as ugly as a wheelie bin full of dead badgers.

Before the irate all-caps emails begin let me just say – when it comes to aesthetic sensibilities everyone has their own personal tastes, and it should be noted that there are many in the classic car world who love the SP250’s unusually styled fiberglass body. Jay Leno is one of them.

Fast Facts – Daimler SP250

• A number of Daimler SP250s were bought by British police departments to help combat speeding drivers, and in particular speeding motorcyclists on their “cafe racers.”
• The SP250 has been likened to a British Corvette as it has a steel chassis with a convertible fiberglass body and a V8 engine under the hood.
• Jay Leno owns an SP250 and he’s famously a big fan of the model, particularly its hemi V8 engine.
• Daimler developed the car in the late 1950s and released it in 1959, it was then sold until 1964.
• The SP250 was introduced in the United States at the 1959 New York Motor Show, where it was immediately voted the ugliest car at the show.

The Daimler SP250 – An Acquired Taste

The Daimler SP250 was developed by the British automaker specifically to increase sales in the United States. The 1950s was characterized by “Jet Age” automobile styling, particularly in America, and so the SP250 was given ample rear fins and plenty of chrome elements.

Above Image: Jay Leno is the Daimler SP250’s most famous fan, he restored one with his team a few years ago and in the above episode he sings the praises of the unusual car.

The SP250 was the first proper sports car developed by Daimler and this lack of experience was apparent in the first series of cars, now retroactively referred to as the A-spec vehicles. The 14 gauge steel ladder frame chassis with cruciform bracing was too flexible for sporting driving, and doors were known to fly open when cornering at speed.

The concept of a fiberglass body was relatively new at the time, though the Chevrolet Corvette had been using the same material since it was introduced in 1953 and British automakers like Jensen were using it extensively.

Although we can never know for sure, it’s likely that if the Daimler SP250 had more universally popular styling it likely would have enjoyed strong sales in the United States, and it may have avoided the offloading of Daimler by its parent company BSA to Jaguar in 1960.

That said, the Jaguar acquisition was actually good news for the little Daimler sports car. Jaguar engineers were among the best sports car designers in the world with multiple 24 Hours of Le Mans wins under their belt. After the Daimler was acquired those same Jaguar engineers set about designing the chassis and developing the B-spec version.

The B-spec Daimler SP250 handles like an entirely different car thanks to the changes made to stiffen the chassis, extra outriggers and a strengthening hoop between the A-posts was added, the difference was considerable but by this time the car already had its reputation.

The unusual front end of the SP250 probably offers good aerodynamics, however many find it aesthetically challenged.

A C-spec version of the car was released in 1963 with a few small upgrades but by this time it was clear that the SP250’s days were numbered. Sales were slow, and the Jaguar E-Type had been released in 1961 which was proving to be a huge sales success for the company.

Jaguar did develop some prototypes of the Daimler SP252 with some E-Type styling cues included, however the car never made it into production, and SP250 production ceased in 1964 with just 2,654 built – far shy of the original projections of 3,000 per year.

This wasn’t the end of the road for that hemi-head V8 used in the SP250 though, it was fitted to the Daimler 2.5 V8, a four-door sports saloon car directly based on the popular Jaguar Mark 2.

The Ex-British Police High Speed Pursuit Car Shown Here

The car you see here is one of just 26 or so examples that were bought by police departments in the United Kingdom and used as high speed pursuit vehicles. These cars quickly entered into automotive legend thanks to their top speed of 125 mph, a remarkable figure for the era, and their ability to catch and arrest speeding cafe racers.

Police used their SP250s extensively, some cars were used 18 to 24 hours a day.

Many British police were assigned Wolseley saloons, exceptionally slow cars that didn’t have a hope of running down speeding motorcyclists. The cafe racer movement started in England in the late 1950s, young men would buy motorcycles and tune them for speed. Illegal street races were held from places like the Ace Cafe in London, many young people died and the general public were demanding that something be done.

As a result, somewhere between 26 and 30 Daimler SP250s were bought and assigned to officers in problem areas. The cars were all fitted with three-speed automatic transmissions, as well as police lights, sirens, and badging.

The car you see here is known by its UK registration number of 550 CLU, it’s had a full nut and bolt restoration to Concours condition and it’s a multiple award winning vehicle. Interestingly this is also the car used as a model by Oxford for their 1/43rd scale model of the police edition of the SP250.

This car is due to roll across the auction block on the 13th of November with Silverstone Auctions, if you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.

Images courtesy of Silverstone Auctions

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