The Hurst HEMI Under Glass Plymouth Barracuda was a crowd-pleaser at dragstrips back in the day. With its 2,500-horse HEMI engine moved to the rear of the car and displayed underneath the Barracuda’s rear glass, the car has some serious weight bias. In fact, the legendary Barracuda earned more affection as a wheelstanding novelty than an actual race vehicle.
Jay Leno was so taken with the HEMI Under Glass as a kid that he called it a “bucket list moment” when he got to experience one of the Barracuda’s wheelstands on a new episode of his TV show, “Jay Leno’s Garage.” But Leno got a little more than he bargained for as longtime driver Bob Riggle was taking the Barracuda through its paces.
As it turns out, a car built for straight-line performance (and lots of wheelies) isn’t exactly nimble around corners. Riggle and Leno were reminded of that at about the 3-minute mark of the video below as Riggle rolls the car — and multiple cameras catch the action.
Luckily, Leno and Riggle were unharmed.
The HEMI Under Glass wasn’t so lucky.
You can check out the episode on June 29
Bob Riggle is a super nice guy. Shame to see it happen but glad both he and Jay escaped unharmed.