written by David Wyatt
Dragula was a custom
hot rod created for
The Munsters TV show by LA customizer
George Barris. Barris had also created the Munster's Wagon. It was created for a specific episode, where
Herman Munster had gotten boastful and bet the Munster's
overpowered hearse would prevail in a
drag race. Bet the car, that is.
The Munstermobile is a trifle heavy, and Herman lost. The car that is. Naturally
Lily Munster was incensed, and
Grandpa further convinced of Herman's inadequacies as a husband. But they needed their car. So
Grandpa Munster built Dragula, a dragster based on a
coffin.
At the time,
drag racing's fastest racers were what was called a
'slingshot' dragster. Slingshots were a type of
dragster where the driver sat behind the rear wheels, his knees hooked over the differential. The
clutch and
transmission (if any) would be located between the driver's feet. Combined with a very long
wheelbase, the heavy rear
weight bias of the dragster, produced a lightweight vehicle very efficient at going fast in a straight line. Slingshots dominated drag racing until the early seventies, when a transmission explosion led
Don 'Big Daddy' Garlits to create the first fast rear-engined dragster. Dragula itself was clearly built as a slingshot.
The basic construction was of a
steel beam frame, which would make it more typical of late fifties dragsters. On top Barris placed a purple
coffin The driver's compartment, with
roll bar was where the head would typically be viewed, and covered with a glass
canopy. A Ford
289 K-code V-8 was installed at the coffin's front, with a small keg behind the front wheels to hold fuel. A
parachute provided a true
emergency brake. Atypical of dragster practice, Dragula also mounted a small
radiator.
Dragula looked pretty cool, and with its light weight probably worked up a lot of speed in a hurry. Grandpa used it to win back the Munster's car in a
match race. I'm also sure that as a car it was cramped, uncomfortable and handled like a pig. But what mattered was it looked way cool, and is still popular at
car shows today. However,
Rob Zombie drove the
Munster Koach in his video 'Dragula'. The Koach was also a Barris creation and quite cool in its own right, but is not Dragula.
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