33 replies to this topic

[Gary Adams]

Sweet! How great would it be to have that on a t-shirt!

[tonyp]

I'd wear that. Cool.

[Brian Cochrane]

Great Stuff!

[Vay Jonynas]

Here's a tough looking "Big Daddy" Don Garlits from the days when he still had hair:

 

 

His Swamp Rat top fuel dragster:

 

 

Don performing a fierce flame burnout in the sixteenth edition of the Swamp Rat::

 

 

I imagine a fellow might intimidate his fellow contestants performing one of these prior to the big race at his local slot car track. The track owner though might have a hemorrhage....

 

[Howie Ursaner]

Don Garlits is one of my all time hero's. Bob Emott took me to my first drag race. It was 1964 and we were at island dragway in nj  when Big Daddy went 200 mph. I remember on one run his chute did not open and he ran off the end of the track. I snuck into the pits in the trunk because i was too young to be there. I was at indy when Don showed up in the first rear engine dragster. say no more.  In 1990, i had a Hemi dart original drag car that i needed to sell. I sent a  letter to Don asking him if he would be interested in it for his museum . A week later i got an early morning phone call and to my great shock it was Don on the phone asking me how he could get to Madison Wi. to buy the car.  In the end he did not buy it because his museum committee wanted the Sox and Martin car instead. 

[Vay Jonynas]

Cool story! So did you manage to sell the car anyway?

 

 

[Howie Ursaner]

Cool story! So did you manage to sell the car anyway?

 

Back then, i was ahead of my time with the race cars.. Very few people were tuned into the old drag cars. I had to have this one but they were hard to sell. This was one of the original 78 factory lightweight Darts built in 1968. It was sold as a race car to teams that would race them.This one ran 9.40's I took it to the Mopar Nats and met the guy who wanted it. I wound up trading the Dart for 2 multi grand national champion Buick GS's. There was a 1970 GSX that was retired from concours competition after winning the nats 6 times. it came with 40 magazines with it on the cover and a box of Monogram  1/24 GSX kits that were this actual car. He wanted to race the Dart in the nostalgia race series. The other was a 1970 GS. Both of these cars were restored to breathtaking  #1 standard , near perfection and nicer than any other.  I sold both of  them in one day and basically broke even on the Dart.   

[grooverunner]

When I was a kid in the 80's I lived near Tampa we use to go to the Gator Nationals, saw Don there.But the time I went to his Museum of Drag Racing for the first time in 1987 and the day before I went there I got the National Dragster for the Top Fuel Champion. So I brought it with me hoping to meet him,and as I was leaving he was at he front desk talking to his Daughter. He said hello, and I asked him for his autograph.. I pulled out the National Dragster and handed it to him. He said WOW! The National  Dragster for the Top Fuel Champion no less! I haven't even got my copy yet,and I'm the Top Fuel Champion! So he pulled out a pen and signed the cover!  What really gets me is that years later I went to the Museum for a Mopar car show and Don was there riding around in a replica of his first race car a flat head T rail. He stop to talk to a guy I was talking to and he looked over at me while talking to my friend and asked me if I still had the National Dragster. I was floored! how does  he remember a 10 min meeting 7 years prior. I said yes I do. He said good.

[Vay Jonynas]

...he looked over at me while talking to my friend and asked me if I still had the National Dragster. I was floored! how does  he remember a 10 min meeting 7 years prior.

 

 

 

Very cool! The really good ones are like that!