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After 40 years of breaking drag racing records, Don "Big Daddy'' Garlits displays his cars and memorabilia at the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing near Ocala.
By WILMA NORTON
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 7, 2000
OCALA -- To generations of racing fans, he is simply "Big Daddy."
Don Garlits, who grew up in the Tampa area, was a drag-racing pioneer in the 1950s, when reaching 170 mph was a big deal. Over his 40-year career, he broke record after record, eventually exceeding 300 mph in the quarter mile, always in cars named Swamp Rat.
Well into his long career, Garlits decided there should be a place to showcase the history of the sport he helped develop. And so, Don Garlits' Museum of Drag Racing was born.
The museum, south of Ocala, about 90 miles from Tampa, opened in 1984. It focuses on dragsters, funny cars, muscle cars and hot rods, complete with mechanical specifics and speed records. That collection, which increases regularly, now holds 175 vehicles.
Displays also feature trophies, drivers' gear and other memorabilia.
For true gearheads, there is a whole room of engines.
A separate building -- aimed toward less hardcore racing fans -- holds Garlits' carefully restored collection of 75 antique and classic cars. The array includes a '34 Ford three-window coupe, an old Studebaker dump truck, a glistening '69 Corvair convertible, a 1950 VW Beetle, a '54 MG TF convertible and a 1917 Locomobile Gunboat Roadster, thought to be the only one still in existence.
And there is a Mopar-sponsored Drag Racing Hall of Fame, added in 1991. Each year, a committee adds 10 honorees.
- Information from Times files was used in this report.
Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing is south of Ocala at I-75 exit 67. It is open daily 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission to all exhibits is $12 adults, $10 seniors and students, $3 ages 5-12. For more information, call (352) 245-8661 or check http://www.garlits.com.