Wacky Races

Wacky Races is an animated cartoon series from Hanna-Barbera Productions, about a group of 11 different cars racing against each other in various road rallies, with each driver hoping to win the title of the "World's Wackiest Racer." The series was apparently inspired by the movies Monte Carlo or Bust (aka Those Daring Young Men in their Jaunty Jalopies) and The Great Race. The series debuted on CBS in 1968 and ran until 1970. Seventeen episodes were produced, with each episode featuring two different races, for a total of 34 races in all.

The drivers

The eleven racers and their numbers were:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Number 00: The Mean Machine, driven by Dick Dastardly & Muttley - the villains of the series, in a rocket-powered car with lots of concealed weapons.
• Number 1: The Bouldermobile, driven by The Slag Brothers (Rock Slag & Gravel Slag) - cavemen (covered with hair like Cousin Itt from The Addams Family; their design was recycled for Captain Caveman) driving a wheeled boulder. The Slag Brothers sometimes reconstructed their car from scratch using their clubs.
• Number 2: The Creepy Coupe, driven by The Gruesome Twosome (Big Gruesome & Little Gruesome) - monsters (Big spoke like Boris Karloff and Little like Peter Lorre), driving a car with a belfry; the belfry housed a dragon and various ghosts and ghouls. The Creepy Coupe was able to fly short distances through use of the dragon's wings.
• Number 3: The Convert-a-Car, driven by Professor Pat Pending - a mad scientist in a car that can change into just about anything that moves.
• Number 4: The Crimson Haybailer, driven by Red Max - an air ace (loosely based on WWI German aviator, Max Immelmann) in a car/plane hybrid that was capable of limited flight, usually just enough to leapfrog over racers and/or obstacles in its path. The Haybailer also had a machine gun mounted, which was sporadically used.
• Number 5: The Compact Pussycat, driven by Penelope Pitstop - a woman racer driving a pink feminine car with personal grooming facilities. Said facilities would sometimes backfire on the other racers---shampoo foam hitting the faces of the other racers, for instance.
• Number 6: The Army Surplus Special, driven by Sergeant Blast & Private Meekly - two soldiers racing an army tank/jeep hybrid. The Army Surplus Special made use of its tank facilities while racing, including its cannon.
• Number 7: The Bulletproof Bomb (aka The Roaring Twenty), driven by The Ant Hill Mob (led by Clyde) - gangsters in a 1920s saloon car. Their car was renamed Chugga-Boom in the spinoff The Perils Of Penelope Pitstop, where it also seemed to gain sentience.
• Number 8: The Arkansas Chuggabug, driven by Luke & Blubber Bear - hillbillies in a wooden buggy driven by a coal-fired range.
• Number 9: The Turbo Terrific, driven by Peter Perfect - a jock (he had a crush on Penelope, so often stopped to help) driving a drag racer that often falls to bits.
• Number 10: The Buzz Wagon, driven by Rufus Ruffcut & Sawtooth - a lumberjack and a beaver in a wagon with buzzsaws for wheels, which gave it the ability to cut through almost anything, damaging or destroying the object in the process.