Hemi Under Glass Barracuda collection heads to auction

The 1966 Hemi Under Glass recreation scrapes the course at the 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed. Photo by Tim Scott, courtesy Mecum Auctions.

From the mid-1960s until 1975, the Hemi Under Glass Plymouth Barracuda was one of the best known exhibition drag racers in the country. Piloted primarily by driver Bob Riggle, it thrilled fans by lofting its front wheels skyward as the thrust from its Hemi V-8 temporarily overcame the bonds of gravity. While many variations touched rear bumper to drag strip over the years, four of these iconic cars will cross the auction block in a single-lot sale this fall.

In 1965, while looking to build a competitive drag racer to highlight the offerings of his company, Hurst Performance, George Hurst experimented with a midship placement of a 426-cu.in. Hemi V-8 – behind the driver but ahead of the rear wheels – in a Plymouth Barracuda. Hurst and his team soon realized that keeping the car’s front wheels on the ground was an exercise in futility, but his natural showmanship kicked in and he soon realized that crowds would love to see the car run the quarter mile on two wheels, its nose pointed to the sky. Rather than compete in a conventional series, Hurst built the car – dubbed the Hurst Hemi Under Glass – for exhibition drag racing, helping to create the wheelstanding phenomenon of the 1960s.

Bob Riggle drives the 1966 Frantic Fish recreation at Goodwood in July 2013. Photo by Tim Scott, courtesy Mecum Auctions.

Original driver “Wild Bill” Shrewsbury piloted the Hemi Under Glass (with its “Bear of a ‘Cuda” script and prominent Hurst logo on its belly) through 1965 and into 1966, before leaving to drive the L.A. Dart wheelstander. By then, the Hurst car had been reconfigured to wear 1966 sheetmetal and driver Bob Riggle was next to climb into the pilot’s seat. Though his first two runs produced heart-stopping landings (one pointed to the left, and a second pointed to the right), the third run convinced Hurst executives that Riggle would be no more likely to total the car than anyone else crazy enough to take on the assignment of driving it.

Not that the directional instability was entirely Riggle’s fault. Early Hemi Under Glass cars lacked wheel brakes, which allowed the driver to steer the car via independently braking the rear wheels. It’s also not clear when the window was cut in the car’s firewall, meaning that Riggle’s early runs might have been completed with very limited visibility down the track. Two-lever wheel brakes were added when the third Hemi Under Glass was built for the 1967 season, and a fresh 426-cu.in. Hemi V-8 was fitted to the car.

The 1967 Hemi Under Glass. Photo courtesy Mecum Auctions.

In 1968, Hurst built a new Hemi Under Glass ‘Cuda, powered by a supercharged 426-cu.in. Hemi V-8 for added power. Rear wheel brakes were simplified from two levers to a single lever, making it far easier for Riggle to steer the car during a run. Though this car was run through 1970, Hurst ultimately lost interest in the project when its new corporate owner, Sunbeam, frowned on the liability of running a wheelstander. Riggle campaigned the car on his own for a while, but a 1975 funny car crash would temporarily sideline the driver’s racing career.

That changed in 1991, when Linda Vaughn convinced Riggle that nostalgia was in, and that a recreation of the Hemi Under Glass would prove popular with racing fans. Riggle wasted no time in sourcing a 1966 Barracuda and a period-correct Hemi; a year later he began to campaign a new generation of vintage Hemi Under Glass racer. Around this same time, the “lost” 1967 Hemi Under Glass chassis surfaced in Canada and Riggle quickly struck a deal to purchase this car. A second Hemi Under Glass was constructed, this time wearing the second-generation Barracuda bodywork that had adorned the original 1967 car.

These two Hemi Under Glass Barracudas, along with two others (including a 1968 version often referred to as the only “authentic” Hemi Under Glass remaining, and another one yet to be shown by Mecum Auctions) eventually wound up in the hands of car collector Bill Sefton. Known to have a passion for all things Mopar, Sefton was often referred to as “The Black Hole” because cars entering his possession almost never returned to the market. As for his motivation, Sefton saw himself more as a curator than a collector, and retaining possession of rare and historically significant muscle cars meant they would be preserved for the next generation of collector.

1968 Hemi Under Glass. Photo courtesy Mecum Auctions.

Then in May, 43 cars from the Sefton Collection turned up at the Mecum Auction in Indianapolis, Indiana. Of the cars offered, 33 sold for a combined $1,454,500, and now additional cars from the Sefton collection (including the four Hemi Under Glass cars described above) are scheduled to be sold at Mecum’s upcoming Chicago auction. Sefton, who was recently convicted for tax evasion, has of late been paying restitution to the IRS; on August 7, Sefton and a partner, Michael Martorano, paid $7.3 million in back corporate taxes for a business venture known as Consumer Benefit Service, Incorporated. In addition, Sefton paid $1.4 million more in personal income tax, was fined $12,500 and was ordered to split the cost of the prosecution with co-defendant Martorano. Sefton was also sentenced to 48 months in prison, although he has until August 21 to file an appeal. If no appeal is filed, Sefton is scheduled to begin his sentence on November 5.

Mecum has the four Hemi Under Glass cars scheduled to go to auction at its Chicago sale in October. As with many of Sefton’s more valuable cars previously offered (including a Plymouth Superbird once owned by racer Roger McCluskey, and the 1971 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda known as the Haircut Hemi, both of which failed to meet the reserve price), these four will carry a reserve price.

Mecum’s Chicago auction will take place October 10-12 at the Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, Illinois. For more information, visit Mecum.com.