Drag-On: A Customized Imperial "Dragon"

(click on the image above to watch the fire-breathing video!) This incredible Fire-Breathing Imperial came up for sale recently. Here's what the owner had to say about it. This 1962 Imperial is better known as "Drag On". I�ve owned the car since 1994 and started customizing it 2 years later. The most fun time you will ever have at any car show. Even on the express way, people are taking pictures at 70 mph. This is the most photographed car at any car show. It will shoot fire from it�s nose about a foot or so. It will also blow smoke about 6 feet. Fire and smoke can be operated from inside the car. But you can connect power cord from under the back bumper and sit in a lawn chair and wait until people walk by. I�ve had small children have to be carried past the car, even a couple of adults got scared when they turned their head and seen it for the first time. Had a dog start barking and went 4 cars away and hide under another car. After blowing the smoke, I�ve had people come running with fire extinguishers thinking that the car was on fire. I believe I have won 2 or 3 times for flame throwing contest. It�s not a large flame, but it�s so unusual that people go nuts. Interior Back seat and side panels are original. The back seat is in good shape but the side panels should be replaced. Has 2 Chevy Astro van bucket seats. I believe it�s 6 way on the drivers side. The door handles are real medieval swords. It has push button trans, but I have Merlin Magician sword for a fake floor shift. The console is hand made out of steel that holds the sword and the propane. It gives the appearance that the dragon is flowing though the car. It has Drag�n tac by Sunpro. Radio works but needs new power antenna. Gas gauge and oil gauge don't work. Installed a rear window defroster. . Exterior Color: Bright Firebird metallic green A 1962 Imperial has a split grille, I opened it up and frenched it in and added knives for teeth. The car is all sheet metal. Does have a couple of bubbles in it. Windshield does have a crack. The dragon head: It will shoot fire out of it�s nose and smoke out of it�s mouth. The eyes will light up. The rip a way is fake, made out of sheet metal, but it does look like it is coming out of the hood. The black around the dragon�s nose is paint. The dragon head or the hood has never burned. The rip a way on each side door is 3 dimensional along with air brushing. You can feel the scales of the dragon. There is medieval knife in front of the rip a way. Exterior door handles are shaved and the 2 front doors are electric remote. Tail fins have been added. Normally it goes straight across, but I added the top of the fin to french in the tail lights. And 3 port holes where added. The trunk is electric. The tail does come out of the trunk, but I put a false bottom about inch or so below the trunk bottom. It has a drain to drain off any water. Wheels Rims came off a Ford truck. It was the only thing I could find to fit the hubs and still I had to cut 3/8 inch to make them fit. The spinners are hand made from Ninja throwing stars and swords. All in all, the dragon flows thru the car and some day it will come out of it�s shell. From Joyrides magazine: Fire-breathing dragon heats up Brighton show By Richard A. Wright Memorial Day 2003 was a perfect day for a car show and the Classic Legends Car Club put on a good one at the Brighton High School. The show had something for everyone from hot rods, street rods and customs to muscle cars to older special interest cars -- the usual and the unusual. For example, a very unusual custom car was shown by Ron Spare of Lansing. His weird 1962 Imperial Custom has a dragon emerging from the hood which can breath fire and smoke, claws popping from the fenders to hold the outside rear-view mirrors, an Excalibar-type sword as a gearshift lever and a dragon head in back holding high-mount brake lights. It is powered by a stock 413 Imperial V-8. Spare said the dragon theme of this very artistic work comes from "Drag On." This weird 1962 Imperial Custom has a fire-and-smoke-breathing dragon emerging from the hood, claws popping up from the fenders to hold the outside rearview mirrors, an Excalibar-type sword as a gearshift lever and a dragon head holding high-mount brake lights. It is powered by a stock 413 Imperial V-8. The car is owned by Ron Spare of Lansing. Ron Spare of Lansing demonstrates how the dragon on the hood of his 1962 Imperial Custom can breath fire and smoke (when he feeds it propane and steam). The dragon's eyes are glass goat's eyes he got at a taxidermist shop. We hope the new owner will write in and tell us what they're doing with this beast!

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This page was last updated 16 August 2008.  Send us your feedback, and come join the Imperial Mailing List - Online Car Club