Original DRAG-U-LA From THE MUNSTERS TV Show Goes On Sale!

If you grew up in the 1960’s The Munsters was a staple on your TV screen. Every week you’d find out what the lovable Munster family was up to. On the series, they had an epic dragster dubbed The Drag-U-La. Five of these babies were produced for the show by Tom Daniel then built by George Barris for The Munsters.

This was likely done because during the 60’s drag racing was a big sport in America and CBS(who produced The Munsters) wanted those racing fans to be Munster fans. Here’s a clip from the episode Hot Rod Herman (1965) that showed what the dragster could do.

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.

The hardest part of building a car like this is the fact that they wanted an authentic coffin to be used and in California, you had to have a death certificate in order to buy one!

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.”

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.

Now who wants to dig through the ditches and burn threw the witches with us in this bad boy?