I will say it up front...This place is amazing.
Mrs Armadilloman and I are on our way to the 2019 NHRA Gartornationals in Gainseville and decided to spend the afternoon 45 minutes farther down the road in Ocala Florida and tour The Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing. The museum is well worth the time and admission as the collection is fabulous.
If you are a drag racing fan you already know that Top Fuel racing wouldn't be what it is today without the endless inovation of "Big Daddy" Don Garlits. And it turns out Garlits is also quite a pack rat and collector of cars, tools, motors, fire suits, racing memorabilia and his collection is huge.
About 300 cars in the collection spanning the history of the automobile as well as the first 50 years of drag racing as an organized sport. If you grew up in the 60s and 70s, you knew about drag racing because of the high profile sponsorships of the likes of Don "The Snake" Prudhome and Tom "The Mongoose" McEwen. It was an amazingly exciting time as men pushed machines to go 200 mph in the standing start quarter mile. From the humble start of the sport, in cars only some one out of their mind would get into, to the modern 300 mph plus professional drag racing world, the whole story is here, told by the ever evolving machines themselves.
And most of Garlits "Swamp Rat" cars are there...from "1" to "34" and many of the experimental versions as well.
Swamp Rat 6" The Wynnsjammer" was campaigned 1964-65 and first top fuel car to officially run faster then 200 mph.
The "accident car"...Garlits last front engine "slingshot" style dragster which suffered a freak clutch explosion that sawed the car in half, taking the front half of Garlits foot as well.
The accident set Garlits on the path to develop a safer race car, placing the engine in back, behind the driver, and the modern drag racing machine was born.
The museum collection contains many other famous and iconic cars including multiple Don "The Snake" Prudhome cars. This is one of my favorites, the wedge body dragsters.
And another of my favorites, Jungle Jim Liberman's funny car.
The development of the top fuel and other racing engines is chronicled in the engine room with a collection of complete engines and parts.
And if race cars and drag racing is not your thing, there is a large classic and antique car collection of cars owned by Garlits and donated to the museum.
There are some beautiful classic cars and hot rods in the collection.
The Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing is located at 13700 SW 16th Ave, Ocala, Florida, just off Interstate 75. The Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing and International Drag Racing Hall of Fame is open every day from 9am-5pm. Closed Thanksgiving & Christmas. Check it out. You won't be disappointed.