“Snake Pit,” the six-engined Barris custom, heads for auction again

If you can sum up the early 1970s in one car, this might be it: a George Barris-designed exercise in horsepower hedonism that, best one can tell, never turned a wheel at speed. Still, if the money's right, you could own the six-engined, six-wheeled Snake Pit.

The lore of the Snake Pit is legion: Barris and associates in California set forth to build not just any custom car, but one that could tackle land speed records north of 300 mph. For motive power, they chose six Cobra-Ford V8s, good for roughly 2,000 hp, tied to a pair of Ford C-6 automatic transmissions and Pontiac rear-ends feeding the rear wheels. The body, which looks like an early prototype of the land speeder from the first "Star Wars," received 30 coats of hand-rubbed lacquer. Total build time: Four years. Total value upon completion: $100,000, by Barris' own estimate.

Total records achieved: Zero.

If there's proof the Snake Pit ever ran at speed, it doesn't exist upon the internets. Transported to France as part of a failed EuroDisney display, the Snake Pit was last sold in 2006 for 27,225 euros. Now for sale again at the Historics at Brooklands auction in England next month with no reserve -- and not in running condition. Other builders managed to go drag racing with multiple V8s, so there's a chance it could run someday -- once a hearty mechanic attempts a 96-piece valve job.