hound to "stop the winning car"). On one occasion Dastardly did cross the finish line in first place, but was revealed to have extended the nose of his car at the last moment, and was disqualified in favor of Penelope Pitstop; this despite the fact that other characters had pulled similar stunts in the past without punishment (and indeed the original footage showed that Dastardly had not extended the nose of his car). In one episode in which he accidentally crossed the finish line first he was still disqualified; due to a series of crazy car mix-ups, Dastardly and Muttley were in the wrong car. It seemed likely that if Dastardly had not bothered to cheat, he might have won many of the races fairly: The Mean Machine was the fastest car on the grid, and Dastardly's driving ability was often shown to be superior to the other racers. (Alas, Dick seemed bound to a code similar to that of wrestler Gorgeous George: "Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat!" In fact, in one episode he came close to crossing the finish line first without cheating, but chose not to win and let the other racers finish before him, as he did not want to win fairly). Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines Dick Dastardly continued his villainous career in the Wacky Races spin-off Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines. The series was inspired by the 1965 film Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines and Dastardly's appearance is based on the film's villain, Sir Percival Ware-Armitage, played by Terry-Thomas. Dastardly and Muttley flew with two other pilots: Zilly, a coward who would hide in his own clothing when ordered to deploy, and Klunk, the mechanic/inventor, who speaks a language largely composed of strange sounds that only Zilly can understand. Together, they comprised the "Vulture Squadron", presumably working for Germany and Central Powers in World War I. The squadron constantly attempted to stop a messenger pigeon, "Yankee Doodle Pigeon", from delivering messages to an opposing army (seemingly American and/or the Triple Entente), often with the song "Stop the Pigeon" playing. A typical scene shows the Vulture Squadron all converging from different directions on Yankee Doodle Pigeon, only to end up crashing into one another—while the bird remained unharmed. As in Wacky Races, Dastardly continued to fail miserably at his mission, only coming near to