40 Fun Facts About Wacky Races

In Wacky Races, which purple, rocket-powered car numbered 00 do Dick Dastardly and Muttley drive?

The Mean Machine was the fastest car in the field, packed with hidden weapons and even able to fly. Its driver kept losing because he stopped to set traps instead of racing on.

Muttley, Dick Dastardly's dog in Wacky Races, is best known for making which sound when a scheme backfires?

A wheezy snicker is the dog's trademark, usually aimed at his own master. His voice actor had already used the same chuckle for earlier Hanna-Barbera dogs such as Precious Pupp.

When Dick Dastardly crossed a Wacky Races finish line first with his car's nose stretched out, what happened?

He was disqualified, and the win went to Penelope Pitstop instead. It was as close as he came: across the whole series the villain never won a single race.

Heatter-Quigley, the company behind Hollywood Squares, first developed Wacky Races as what kind of program?

A game show was the plan: children would guess each race's winner and the right guessers would take home prizes. The network dropped the contest during development, leaving just the cartoon.

Which pink Wacky Races car, driven by Penelope Pitstop, doubles as a mobile beauty parlor full of grooming gadgets?

The Compact Pussycat carried gadgets and beauty products that sometimes backfired on rival racers. Its driver was the only woman in the original line-up.

In their flying spin-off from Wacky Races, what are Dick Dastardly and Muttley forever trying to stop in mid-air?

A carrier pigeon called Yankee Doodle Pigeon flies secret messages past them in every story. The bird always escapes, and the villains usually end up crashing into one another.

In the first Wacky Races episode, the Ant Hill Mob escape a pursuing policeman by disguising themselves as which group?

The Seven Dwarfs made a handy disguise for a carload of pint-sized gangsters. A later spin-off went further and rebuilt the gang as heroes patterned on the same fairy tale.

Which later Hanna-Barbera superhero, voiced by Mel Blanc, was modeled on the hairy Slag Brothers of Wacky Races?

Captain Caveman arrived in 1977, nine years after the shaggy racing brothers he was based on. In his own show he is thawed out of a block of ice by three teenage detectives.

DC's 2016 comic Wacky Raceland sent the Wacky Races drivers across a desert wasteland in the style of which film series?

Mad Max was the model: the racers battle toward Utopia, said to be mankind's last safe haven. The same line of comics also gave Scooby-Doo an apocalypse.

In the Wacky Races spin-off The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, which villain is secretly her guardian, Sylvester Sneekly?

The Hooded Claw wants her inheritance, so he rigs elaborate traps for her while posing as her kindly protector. She never realizes the two men are one.

Which Wacky Races professor drives the Convert-a-Car, a vehicle he can turn into almost anything that moves?

Pat Pending, his name a pun on a patent notice, returned in a 2006 revival pilot reimagined as a crazed scientist.

Which vain Wacky Races driver, sweet on Penelope Pitstop, sees his Turbo Terrific fall apart moments after praising it?

Peter Perfect and Penelope nearly ended up married in one race, when the villain steered them into a bakery and turned the pair into the figures on a wedding cake.

Rufus Ruffcut, the lumberjack of Wacky Races, shares the wooden Buzz Wagon with Sawtooth, who is what kind of animal?

A beaver suits a car built entirely of wood: Sawtooth cuts through trees and other obstacles in seconds, and the wagon rolls on four circular saw blades.

Sergeant Blast and Private Meekly of Wacky Races drive the Army Surplus Special, an armored car crossed with what?

A tank gave the Army Surplus Special its trick: the sergeant fired cannonballs from the turret for a burst of extra power.

In the Wacky Races opening titles, how does Dick Dastardly try to hold the other cars back?

Chaining them to a pole backfires at once: he slips into reverse by mistake, breaks the pole and frees every rival just as the race begins.

In Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines, what does the Wacky Races dog constantly demand for obeying orders?

Medals covered his chest in the spin-off, and his master ripped them off again as punishment. He also learned to fly in short bursts by spinning his tail like a rotor.

Dick Dastardly of Wacky Races was derived from the villain of the 1965 comedy The Great Race, played by which star?

Jack Lemmon played Professor Fate, a mustachioed cheat whose sabotage keeps backfiring. The film itself was inspired by a real 1908 race from New York to Paris.

Which ventriloquist, also the original voice of Tigger and Gargamel, first played Dick Dastardly in Wacky Races?

Paul Winchell was an inventor with medical training too, and held an early patent for an artificial heart designed to sit inside the chest.

Which voice actor, also the original Scooby-Doo, played Muttley, Sawtooth and Little Gruesome in Wacky Races?

Don Messick first wanted to be a ventriloquist and even earned his living as one for a time, before becoming one of the busiest voices in cartoons.

Which actress, the longtime voice of Judy Jetson, played Penelope Pitstop in Wacky Races and her spin-off series?

Janet Waldo had finished recording the 1990 Jetsons film when the studio abruptly replaced her with pop star Tiffany, a switch that drew volumes of hate mail.

Which voice of Huckleberry Hound played six Wacky Races drivers, including Sergeant Blast and Rufus Ruffcut?

Daws Butler went on to coach younger voice actors, among them Nancy Cartwright, who became the voice of Bart Simpson.

In Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines, the Wacky Races villains fly in a squadron named after which bird?

Vulture Squadron has four members: the two villains, a cowardly pilot called Zilly and Klunk, an inventor whose clicks and whistles only Zilly can translate.

Which pint-sized gangster leads the Ant Hill Mob, the crew of the Bulletproof Bomb, in Wacky Races?

Clyde stays in his seat while the rest of the gang poke their legs through the floor of the car and run, a trick the cartoon called getaway power.

How does Lazy Luke, the hillbilly of Wacky Races, steer his steam-powered Arkansas Chuggabug?

With his feet on the wheel, he rode beside Blubber, a timid, tearful bear who sometimes blew up a balloon and used it as a jet for a quick boost.

The Gruesome Twosome's Creepy Coupe in Wacky Races gets its booster power from which creature in its bell tower?

A dragon shares the car's little belfry with bats and ghosts, and its fiery breath works like a booster rocket strapped to the back.

How do the Slag Brothers, the prehistoric pair of Wacky Races, give their Boulder Mobile a burst of extra power?

Hitting it with clubs, one brother on each side, gets the stone car moving, and the same clubs can carve a whole new car out of bare rock.

In Wacky Races, rivals mistake Penelope Pitstop's outstretched arm for a turn signal when she is really doing what?

Drying her nail polish in the breeze once slowed the whole pack, because she was leading at the time and nobody dared to pass a car that seemed to be signalling.

The designers of Muttley, the Wacky Races dog, pictured his body shape as a dog crossed with which household appliance?

A vacuum cleaner was the starting point for his shape. He proved popular enough to earn solo cartoons, Magnificent Muttley, built around his daydreams.

In the 1990 Fender Bender 500 shorts, a Wacky Races follow-up, Dick Dastardly and Muttley raced what kind of vehicle?

A monster truck called the Dirty Truckster finally brought them a few race wins, though each victory came with a catch that made it worthless.

In the 2017 Wacky Races reboot, what is the name of Penelope Pitstop's scheming twin sister, a frequent guest racer?

Pandora dresses in purple where her sister wears pink and plays dirtier than the regular villain, though she often teams up with him for her own ends.

Which British actor voiced Dick Dastardly when the Wacky Races villain became the main antagonist of the film Scoob!?

Jason Isaacs plays him as a criminal mastermind who hunts Scooby-Doo in order to open the gates of the Underworld and rescue his lost dog.

On the Wacky Races run from Key Largo to Key West, Dick Dastardly tries to whip up which artificial disaster?

A hurricane of his own making, blown by a giant wind-maker, was meant to sweep the rival cars off the long chain of island bridges.

Which character actor narrated the original Wacky Races, calling each race and bantering with the drivers as he went?

Dave Willock began in vaudeville in a comedy song-and-dance act with his boyhood friend Jack Carson, then spent four decades as a character actor in films and television.

Which animation artist, who also designed Scooby-Doo, created the look of Penelope Pitstop for Wacky Races?

Iwao Takamoto recalled that she joined the cast after Joe Barbera realized the line-up of drivers had no women in it.

Life-size working replicas of the Wacky Races cars became a crowd favorite at which British motoring event?

Goodwood Festival of Speed crowds watched the collection grow car by car until 2008, when the gangsters' car completed the full set.

In Wacky Races, Big Gruesome, the larger half of the Gruesome Twosome, goes by which unlikely first name?

Tiny is the big one and Bela the little one, and the pair returned in the 2017 reboot closer to their original selves than any of the other racers.

Dick Dastardly's look in his flying spin-off from Wacky Races was based on a film villain played by which English actor?

Terry-Thomas played the caddish Sir Percival Ware-Armitage in a 1965 comedy about an early air race, the film whose title the spin-off borrowed.

In Laff-A-Lympics, which look-alike dog took Muttley's place as captain of the villainous Really Rottens?

Mumbly had been a heroic detective in his own cartoon, so the swap turned a good guy into the leader of the villainous Really Rottens.

In the Wacky Races episode The Great Cold Rush Race, run across Canada, Dick Dastardly disguises himself as what?

An Abominable Snowman costume was his ploy on the trans-Canadian leg, one of only three races in the series held outside the lower 48 states.

The 2017 Wacky Races reboot was first released on the video-on-demand service of which cartoon channel?

Boomerang's reboot kept only the villain and his dog, Penelope, her admirer and the Gruesome Twosome; more than half of the original racers were left out.