If you're reading this, you probably know that I like a lot of things from the 1960s, like music and sitcoms and cars. Well, spoiler alert, this post has to do with all three of those things! Haha.
The Munsters was a sitcom that aired for 2 seasons between 1964 and 1966. I have loved that show for as long as I can remember. I loved Herman and Grandpa the most as a kid (and still do!). Episode 36 in season 1, "Hot Rod Herman," is my favorite episode of them all. Herman loses the family car, the Munster Koach, in a drag race. As usual, Grandpa has a plan to fix things. He builds his own dragster, called DRAG-U-LA, made from a coffin, and plans to challenge and beat the Koach's new owner to win it back.
The story of how the actual DRAG-U-LA came to be is a great one. From Wikipedia:
The fiberglass body of DRAG-U-LA was built from a coffin that Richard "Korky" Korkes, [custom car builder George] Barris's project engineer, was able to purchase from a funeral home in North Hollywood. Korkes said in 2013 that it was illegal to sell a coffin without a death certificate, so he made a deal with the funeral director to pay in cash and have the coffin left outside the rear door to be collected after dark.
And no joke, this thing was a legitimate drag car:
The car had a 350HP, 289ci Ford Mustang V-8 engine with a four-speed stick shift. It had two four-barrel carburetors mounted on a Edelbrock Ram-Thrust manifold. The carburetors were mounted backwards in an effort to save space and the pull type throttle actuation modified into a pusher type.
The rear tires were 10.00-15 Firestone racing slicks, mounted on custom 10-inch-wide Radir aluminum and steel wheels. Each hubcap was decorated with a large silver spider. The front tires were 4-inch Italian tires on Speedsport English buggy wire wheels. To extend the Gothic motif further, Barris installed four Zoomie style organ pipes on each side of the car in lieu of a standard exhaust pipe, and mounted antique lamps on the front and rear.
I wish I could have seen it in action in person! I'm whatever in regards to the motor they chose, but overall the specs are wild. Clearly I am obsessed with that thing, but I am not the only one who loves it, judging by the fact that Rob Zombie wrote a song about it. In looking for photos of it, I found out that there was a 1:25 model kit made, so I had to snag the cheapest one I could find (I have kits of the Monkeemobile and Bandit Trans Am sitting here to build too, haha - winter projects!).
Having heard "Dragula" earlier made me want to rewatch the show and also inspired this post. It being the 13th today is also perfect because on the show, the Munsters live at 1313 Mockingbird Lane. If you've never seen the show, I highly recommend you check it out. It's silly and wholesome, so if you need a lighthearted show with lots of laughs, it's a perfect choice.
As an aside, if you know me then you know how much I love gothic and horror aesthetics. I am pretty sure the frequency at which I saw The Munsters in my early formative years is what solidified that one, haha. I was also obsessed with the Beetlejuice cartoon (1989-1991), so it really is no wonder that I turned out the way I did. Zero shame here.
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