If there is one thing that gets old timey drag racing guys to sit up and take notice, it is ex-Jungle Jim race cars. For a while it seemed like every old Monza funny car that came up for sale was owned by the guy who defined drag racing for a generation of fans. This car appears to have the documentation that most of those others were missing. The good part about that is the security a potential buyer has in knowing he’s getting the real article. The downside (from a buyer’s perspective) is that the seller wants a mint for the car. $250,000 to be exact.
This car is being sold as a roller, so the buyer is getting a restored Monza body and a restored chassis which was originally constructed by noted New England chassis builder Rollie Lindblad who operated a shop in Massachusetts for many years. The car also comes with two bills of sale. One from Jungle Jim to Bruce Larson and the second is from Larson to Chuck Etchells. This is pretty much air tight documentation when it comes to a race car like this.
With respect to the other major component of the car like the motor, the reality is that they were changed like light bulbs in these cars. To say that this car and chassis are a matched pair and there is plenty of supporting documentation to go along with that makes us comfortable with calling this a legit car. Is it worth $250,000? That’s what the market will decide, but we sure as hell wouldn’t pay that for a car you can’t really do much with!
Link: Ex-Jungle Jim Monza in Hemmings classifieds
Jungle ran that car only a couple of times, he hated it and got rid of it fast. Also the paint scheme on the car is one that Jungle hated and it also went away fast. Did Jungle own it? Yes. Is the car like it was back then? No. Is it worth a quarter million? F**k no…
$250k for a ROLLER??????
You tell’em Berkserko! I remember the car and I too know Jungle didn’t like the car from the beginning.
The only way that is worth a quarter million is if Jungle was sitting in it TODAY! Heck we’d all kick in dollars if we could make that happen. Still miss him after all these years.