After a good night of sleep in the Garlits Museum parking lot, we walked over to the Museum of Drag Racing. To tell you the truth, we knew nothing about this sport so were looking forward to learning all about it. We’ll take you through the museum in chronological order, even though the museum mixed up all of the cars based on how they were placed in the floor plan.
So who is Don Garlits and why is he important to the field of car racing. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say:
Donald Glenn Garlits (born January 14, 1932) is an American race car driver and automotive engineer. Born in Tampa, Florida, Garlits is considered the godfather of drag racing and is known as “Big Daddy” to drag racing fans around the world. A pioneer in the field, he perfected the rear-engine Top Fuel dragster, an innovation motivated by the loss of part of his foot in a dragster accident. This design was notably safer since it put most of the fuel processing and rotating parts of the dragster behind the driver. The driver was placed in front of nearly all the mechanical components, thus protecting him and allowing him to activate a variety of safety equipment in the event of catastrophic mechanical failure or a fire. Garlits was an early promoter of the full-body, fire-resistant Nomex driving suit, complete with socks, gloves, and balaclava.
We’ll see all of these in this post.
(AI overview: A/GS stands for “A/Gas Supercharged,” a competition class for gas coupes and sedan that were equipped with supercharged engines.)
This car represents the latest “state of the art” in drag racing in Florida during the mid-1950s.
Funny Cars
To get a good definition of a drag racing funny car, I looked for the meaning on AI. Here’s what I found:
“Funny car drag racing involves high-powered, high-speed cars with a supercharged and fuel-injected engine, a carbon-fiber body that loosely resembles a production car, and a short wheelbase.” Combining these features would be really interesting.
But who came up with the title of “funny cars”? Here’s what AI has to say:
“Funny Cars originated in the mid-1960s from the Factory Experimental (A/FX) and Super Stock drag racing classes, when racers began modifying their cars with altered wheelbases to improve traction. Their unusual appearance led to them being called “funny-looking,” and the name stuck. The NHRA [National Hot Rod Association] officially recognized the class, Funny Car Eliminator, in 1969.”
I found a video online about this car when I googled Big Al II. Here’s the description: “Big Al II, a unique fiberglass dragster, powered by a 2000 horsepower V12 Allison aircraft engine, and a 1959 Fall Championship Kirk dragster with a 2000 horsepower gasoline engine.”
Here’s an AI Overview when I googled Smothers brothers race car: “The Smothers Brothers sponsored a drag racing team in 1968 and 1969, which used specially prepared 1969 Oldsmobile Cutlass models. The cars were built for NHRA stock eliminator competition, and while the horsepower was intentionally understated for racing classes, they were still competitive. There were five cars in total for the team.”
dragsters
Eventually Don got the nickname of Swamp Rat when he raced his cars in California. The racers there thought that only swamp rats could come from Florida. Don took on the nickname and added it to his race cars.
The “Sidewinder” design was a bold experiment by “Big Daddy” Don Garlits, who was a pioneer in drag racing innovations.
from drag racing to bike racing
Why is it called a dragbike? AI overview says, “The term “dragbike” comes from ‘drag racing,‘ which most likely originated from the slang use of the word ‘drag’ to mean a main or busy street in a town.” Wikipedia says, “Motorcycle drag racing (also known as “sprints”) involves two participants lining up at a dragstrip with a signaled starting line.”
We’ve learned so much as we’ve walked through the history of drag car racing in this museum. Don’t know if we’ll ever go to a race, but we certainly have a much greater appreciation for this sport.
Now on to a whole different look at history at our next stop.
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