Wondering what to do with that coffin that’s been lying around in your backyard? Here’s an idea: make it into a car. Of course, the top-shelf coffin car would be a George Barris-built Drag-U-La from The Munsters. But today we’ll have to settle for this Dragula-wanna-be, listed here on facebook Marketplace for $4000 (recently reduced from $5000!). The seller notes that he has a Pinto engine, transmission, and radiator to go with the car – it’s unclear if the price includes those items as well. Take a trailer to Limestone, Tennessee to retrieve your prize. Thanks, Chuck Foster, for digging up this morbid opportunity!
Drag-U-La hit the ground in 1965 – equipped with a Ford 289 V8 driving via an automatic, with a fiberglass body underpinned by a tube-steel dragster chassis. Drag racing was entering its heyday at the time, and the phenomenon was duly recorded in “Hot Rod Herman”, the 36th Munsters episode. Herman loses the family “Koach” in a race, upsetting Lily to no end. With Drag-U-La, Grandpa hopes to win back the Koach. The car’s appearance in this one episode, along with footage in the movie Munster, Go Home!, was enough to inspire replicas far and wide. Later, Rob Zombie commemorated Barris’ creation in his song, Dragula. This car’s fabricator was aiming for a rat-rod interpretation, topping the webby forward lights with spiders and listing the gas tank ingredient as “embalming fluid”.
Drag-U-La encased its driver in a plexiglas bubble; looks like this creator has opted for something less ambitious. What’s it going to take to bring this coffin car back from the dead? Hard to tell without a few more details from our seller, but the new owner will face a measure of engineering before it’s roadworthy. And licensing will depend on the generosity of your state’s DMV. Mine isn’t imbued with any sense of humor whatsoever, so no windshield, no wipers, no bumpers – is not likely to invite cooperation. Then there’s the matter of value: finishing this project could bury the new owner financially unless he can think outside the box.
Just a matter of time that the site would turn to the macabre, perhaps some blowback from the stolen dozer post, :D,, “now when I die, I don’t want no coffin, I thought about it all too often, just strap me in behind the wheel and bury me in my automObile”.
What troubles me the most, is generations could be unaware of great programs, like the Munsters. It was a groundbreaking show in 1964 few saw humor in, funerals. I think it was an attempt to bring the country out of the Kennedy shooting, a humorous take on funerals, and an odd group who hung out there. In the mid 60s, drag racing was huge, usually broadcast on Wide World of Sports opposite dog trials, not much coverage, but TV shows instantly capitalized on the racing, and the episode mentioned was one of my favorites. Filmed at the then famous Lions Dragway( look at the smog then) .
Not sure what to do with this,,,thing,,and we’ll all see a coffin soon enough.
I you did put an LS in it, you could easily bury the needle. But with that unsprung rear axle, it would certainly be a stiff ride. Yet, for a least a moment, it would put the “fun” in funeral and be one hell of a ride!
Kool, but needs a lot of work, and only 3 poor photos.