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Car of the Day: May 3, 2015; Johnny Lightning '70 Don Garlits' Wynns Charger Slingshot Dragster
Topic Started: May 3 2015, 07:58 AM (488 Views)
juantoo3
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Car of the Day for May 3, 2015 is the Johnny Lightning 1970 Don Garlits' Wynns Charger Slingshot Dragster

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Donald Glenn "Don" Garlits (born January 14, 1932, Tampa, Florida) is an American race car driver and pioneering automotive engineer. He is considered the father of drag racing. He is known as "Big Daddy" to drag racing fans around the world. Always a pioneer in the field of drag racing, he perfected the rear-engine "top fuel dragster design", 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 "clear air," in front of nearly all the mechanical components, thus protecting the driver 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 driver's suit - complete with socks and gloves, often branded as Nomex. Garlits was the first drag racer to officially surpass the 170, 180, 200, 240, 250, and 270 miles per hour marks in the quarter mile; he was also the first to top 200 in the 1/8 mile. He has been inducted into several Halls of Fame and has won many awards during his career.


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In May 2014 at age 82, Garlits set a 184 mph speed record in an EV dragster, a battery-powered electric vehicle that does not burn fuel.


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In the early days of drag racing, post-World War II Central and Western United States military aircraft pilot training fields had become available for alternate uses, including auto racing. Don Garlits first drag race car was built under an oak tree at his home in North Tampa in 1954. An electric welder and a gas torch modified an old 1927 Ford Model “T” Roadster to accept a 1948 Mercury block, a 1939 Ford floor shift transmission, and a 1948 Ford differential and axle. That early T-Bucket's quarter mile performance was a 13.5 second elapsed time, at a top speed of 93 mph. It was this successful, formative roadster that would give Don the beginnings of his first rail-job dragster. He took off the body, moved the engine back and located the seat behind the drive axle, a design invented that same year by Mickey Thompson. This would be the 12.1 second, 108 mph slingshot dragster with which Big Daddy would win the first NHRA race he entered, when the NHRA Safety Safari came to Lake City, Florida. Three years later, he became a professional drag racer. The first national drag racing meet, sponsored by the National Hot Rod Association was held on an airfield near Great Bend, KS in 1955. Don Garlits, being from Florida, was something of an outsider. He was sometimes referred to as the Floridian, before permanently adopting the nickname, "Swamp Rat," which also became the name for each generation of his innovative dragster designs.


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In 1970, Garlits was driving Swamp Rat XIII, also called the Wynnscharger, a front-engined slingshot rail, when the vehicle suffered a catastrophic failure. The two-speed transmission Garlits was developing exploded and took a piece out of his right foot; he was out for the remainder of the season. In an interview by Florida Trend, Garlits said this of the incident: "In 1970, the transmission exploded in my dragster on the final run, and it cut my foot off and cut the car in two. That’s when I drew up plans for what I thought would be a championship rear-engine car. I would go out to the shop in Seffner on my wheelchair, saw stuff out on the band saw and make the parts."

He returned to Pomona in 1971 with Swamp Rat XIV, a brand new mid-engined, front-cockpit rail, also dubbed the "Swamp Rat I-R" by Hot Rod Magazine in the article introducing it to their readers.

At first, the rodding magazines considered the disadvantages of the new dragster design "obvious". However,Swamp Rat XIV was so successful that in 1971, Garlits won two of his next three Top Fuel Eliminator titles (the Winternats and Bakersfield), and was a runner-up at Lions, all in the new rod. A change so momentous had not happened since Mickey Thompson moved the seat behind the rear axle to create the slingshot in 1954. Rear engine dragsters have since become mainstream in drag racing.


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For more info see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Garlits

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I'm glad JL made this model to help celebrate a Drag Racing legend. I had the distinct pleasure of shaking Mr. Garlits' hand a couple of months ago at his Drag Racing Museum in Ocala, FL.

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pjedsel
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Muscle Car
Man...all these guys are getting older - Don Garlits, AJ Foyt, etc. Glad I'm not! :lol: :lol: This is a great piece from JL. While I am not really into drag racing I have always been surprised there have not been more offerings of this type on small scale. I know Racing Champions did a series of dragsters and funny cars but they were not the greatest...still better than nothing, I suspect. Thanks for sharing the background on the car as well - imagine a lot of folks are not aware of the evolutions in drag racing over the years.
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juantoo3
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Actually, RC had some really well detailed dragsters, I think I have Cha Cha Muldowney's ride around somewhere. JL made a lot of the older (shorter) dragsters, the RCs overall were probably about the same length, but since they represented longer rails they were considerably smaller scale. Some of RCs old, early attempts from the late 80s were just plain crude, but a lot of the late 90s and beyond stuff was actually quite presentable.
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craftymore
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Support your local demo derby.

While these models don't have a large following, I'm glad JL did include these in their casting bank. Shows the true diversity they had back in the PM days.
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69Stang
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Station Wagon
Love today's selection! I snapped this a few years ago when Don was in Chattanooga at a show and he talked me into coming down to the museum. I stopped and spent a day on my way to Sebring two years ago, it was just absolutely amazing!!

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accobra64
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Minivan
Definitely a trip back in time:
The Johnny Lightning Top Fuel Dragsters.

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JL Don Garlits Swamp Rat 10 Top Fuel Dragster:

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Thanks for the feature on Don Garlits.

Cheers. Cobra
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