Who doesn’t want a 2,000bhp dragster with six V8s?
What has 2,000 horsepower, six V8 engines, 48 exhaust pipes, six wheels, an orange velvet cabin and took three years to build? The answer is one of the year’s most unusual auction lots…
The wild one-off, with an anticipated 300mph top speed, is called the Snake Pit. If you fancy it, too late: H&H has just sold it for £51,750 at its first online-only classic car auction.
The Snake Pit is on its way to a collector in Qatar who snapped up this caricature of a dragster against what H&H reports were bids from collectors in both the US and Austria. This was a car in demand.
Its appeal lies not in what it ever achieved – it is doubtful anyone has ever seen it actually running, certainly not recently – but in who made it. That was the late George Barris, known as the craziest of car customisers whose epic, fantastical creations are today part of automotive popular culture.
Barris Kustom Industries created special cars for US TV shows of the ‘60s and ‘70s – including Batman. George Barris designed and built the original 1966 Batmobile which he sold at auction for US $4.6m in 2013, two years before his death.
The Oldsmobile jalopy from The Beverly Hillbillies, the “General Lee” Dodge Charger from The Dukes of Hazzard and the Koach from The Munsters are a few more Barris Industries creations you may remember.
Snake Pit, though, was never destined for TV, but instead was dreamed up to have a crack at speed records, though there is no evidence it ever competed, let alone won anything.
But who cares about that when it looks this outrageous just standing still? Still, we wish the new owner in Qatar all the best – firing up all six Ford 351 V8s, and balancing their 12 Holley carbs, will surely not be the work of a moment…
Snake Pit was top lot in H&H Classics’ first online auction which saw 25 out of 36 cars sold – and one new world record set. Not for the Snake Pit, but for a 1978 Ford Fiesta 950, the Science Museum exhibit until 2017. Unregistered and with 141 miles on the odometer, it sold for £14,950.
Auction
Sale
Drag Racing
