A little while back we showed you the Kenny Bernstein Ford Tempo body that the Darrell Gwynn foundation was auctioning off to raise money for their awesome cause of getting folks into wheelchairs that really need them. We learned that Bernstein donated his entire collection of stuff to the foundation so that they could use the items as fundraising pieces. That’s a very awesome move by King Kenny and it is an equally great opportunity for the Darrell Gwynn foundation. If the Tempo was cool than this baby is ice freaking cold.

BangShifter Sheldon Roberts tipped us to the auction which runs out tomorrow, so scrape your pennies and dimes together and throw them into the mix for this true piece of drag racing history. As we have told you about before, this is the single most controversial body in the history of funny car racing and the stories that surround it are legend. As the tale goes (told to us by Dale Armstrong himself) when NHRA came to look the body over it was sitting there in gelcoat with no windows or anything cut into it. The inspectors noted the basic shape, mulled it over for a spell, and then allowed the car into competition. When it showed up at Pomona in completed form, there was a firestorm of controversy from other teams and even pressure from the very people who had signed off on it! NHRA told Bernstein that they could use the body in 1987 but it was toastr after that. The good news is that 1987 was all that the needed.

This body qualified #1 at 13 of the 20 events it was entered in. It won 12 of the 20 events it was entered in, a victory percentage of more than 50. The car carried Bernstein and Armstrong to the 1987 NHRA funny car championship and then it was retired at the end of the year, per the edict of the NHRA. Seldom has a single car caused the stir that this one did and seldom has one car so strongly influenced the way competitors and engineers alike view a drag racing category. Outside of the Garlits rear engine car, the Grumpy Jenkins tube chassi pro stocker, and this one we’re hard pressed to think of another. What you’re looking at below is the basic template of the modern nitro funny car. Like it or not, this is the machine that made it happen and accelerated the process.

This is a truly cool and significant piece of drag racing history and the price tag on it will reflect that. We’d love like heck to own this thing but it doesn’t exactly fit into the design motif of our better half. Buy the car, support the foundation and own history!

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eBay Find: The REAL Kenny Bernstein/Dale Armstrong 1987 Buick “Batmobile”