For many fans of Bewitched, "Super Car" is a classic script. In this episode, Endora attempts to make friends with Darrin and zaps up a fantastically modern sports car for him called the Reactor Mach II.

 


Darrin Reads about the Super Car in Car News Magazine

Darrin acts like a 10-year old boy on Christmas day when he sees his dream car become a reality. He prances around it and rattles off the statistics about its performance to a thoroughly unimpressed Endora and Samantha. They can't understand the attraction to a car, but to Darrin it is much, much more. After years of driving around in the Bewitched sponsor's Chevrolets, he is ready to zoom around in this sporty roadster.


Darrin and Samantha Take the Super Car for a Spin

In # 93 "Super Car", the Reactor Mach II is also much more than a car to the engineers back in Detroit. They say that their experimental car cost $150,000 and five years of development time to manufacture. Endora has transported their prototype and when Darrin sets his eyes on the car's serial number, he realizes that the car is hot and must go back before anyone sees it. Naturally, he's already told Larry and a client about his mother-in-law's gift and they stop over to give it a spin while Endora is at Mardi Gras. Sam locates Endora, and mayhem ensues when she pops it back to the lab during Mr. Sheldrake's test drive.


Under the Hood of the Reactor

 

The car is actually a prototype created by auto designer Gene Winfield. The Reactor featured a radar screen, flip-top roof, retractable fins, and a 425-horsepower engine. The hydraulic liquid-on-air suspension allowed the driver to adjust the ground clearance from 4 to 9 1/2 inches. The $20,000 price tag would buy several of Larry Tate's screaming yellow Stingrays in the 1960s. The lime green metallic paint with darker green shading around the edges made the car stand out as well.

This custom car featured an aluminum body, so it's no wonder that Darrin was so particular about Sam driving it — one little fender bender and it would crumble like a soda can squeezed in a fist. The engine was based on the Chevy Corvair.

 

The Reactor appeared as Catwoman's Kitty Car with big ears and a tail in an episode of Batman.

         

 

The Reactor also appeared as the Jupiter 8 in the Star Trek episode "Bread and Circuses".

 

Another sighting of the Reactor (once removed) can be seen in The Flying Nun episode, #3 "Old Cars for New," in which Carlos (Alejandro Rey) was showing Sister Bertrille (Sally Field) a car in a magazine. The cover, which displayed a photo of the Reactor, was from the same magazine Darrin was reading in # 93 "Super Car".

 

The Piranha, which was featured in Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Girl from U.N.C.L.E. television shows, paved the way for Winfield to get his other models, like the Reactor, on to popular TV shows. Winfield is also responsible for both the shuttlecraft and Klingon battlecruiser from Star Trek, and cars for T.H.E. Cat and The Hero. Films that featured his work include Sleeper, The Last Starfighter, and Blade Runner (astonishingly 25 different futuristic models were his design).

The actual supercar is now a part of Darryl Starbird's National Rod and Custom Hall of Fame museum in Afton, Oklahoma.

 

 

 


Source:

TV Magazine from The World Journal Tribune, January 15-21, 1967.

 

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