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Bid Daddy Don Garlits

giles45shop

Red Skull Member
Joined
May 24, 2020
Member Number
1336
Messages
114
Loc
Odessa, FL
Had a chance to spend some time today with Big Daddy. My best friend's dad owned a junkyard in Tampa back in the 50's-80's. BD used to frequent the yard and they had a lot of common acquaintances from the Tampa racing scene. My buddy emailed him and he responded he was going to be at his museum in Ocala (about 2 hrs North) today and he would be happy to meet us and show us around.

We headed up there and let the guy at the desk know we were here. He wasn't there yet, so we looked around the museum for about 20 minutes before he walked up and started talking to us.

He talked a lot about the beginnings of his racing and experiences in Tampa and the common acquaintances. As we talked, we walked around the museum and he talked about specific cars and back stories. So many cool stories and it was so interesting to hear about the many innovative ideas he had over the years. We even heard how he got the "Big Daddy" nickname while standing in front of one of Connie Kallita's early dragster that he test drove in CA when he got the name.

He also took us back behind the museum to his shop where they were reworking his electric dragster to retake the top mph record from some guy who beat him earlier this year with a 201 mph run. We spent over an hour with him.

He is definitely a straight shooter, tell it Ike it is guy and it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend time with one of the biggest icons of drag racing and hear stories directly from the guy who lived it.

If you are in the area and like drag racing/cars it is well worth spending a few hours and $20 to see 90+ drag cars (many of his Swamp Rat cars as well as cars from other famous names of the drag racing world) and 50+ cars from antiques to hot rods in the other building.
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Spent about 3 hours in the museum back in 93, would have spent more time but I was on my way back to NM.
I think it was the 88 mile high nationals he was working for Muldowny. My house mates 4 year old kept asking if Big Daddy was going to be at the race, (Max always joked that JMax knew Garlets name before he knew his) sure enough as we worked our way through the pit Garlets and Muldowny were greeting folks and signing autographs. Max made the comment that it would be cool to get JMax a signed picture, so I said follow me and buuled my way through got up front , yelled Hey Don see this little fellow all he a asked on the way here is Big Daddy going to be here. Don walked over took him from Max's arms and started talking to him. Then he asked Max have you taken a picture yet, After the picture was taken, he handed him back to his dad and moved on! The boy was ecstatic. When we got home that evening all he told his mom all about it over and over. We parted ways I was working nights and they were day people. about 4 months after we parted Belinda brought JMax with her to return my part of the deposit and JMax coming running in and jumped on my lap to hug me thanking me for his picture. Later on Max told me the Garlets picture was an 8x11 hanging in Jmax's room and his was a wallet size sitting on the toilet tank.
 
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Saw him race many times when i was a kid a raceway park in old bridge. Would love to meet him.
 
nahmus said:
Saw him race many times when i was a kid a raceway park in old bridge. Would love to meet him.
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My first nationals event was there, flew out to Virginia, and the cousins and I drove up. That was in the mid 80s. Made it twice to the Texas track watched Garlets loose the kevlar belts he was running for front tires everytime he ran through at 271 MPH, If you see him he is very approachable or at least he used to be
 
How cool! Big Daddy was one of my heroes, growing up. The other was Jim Hall. Both are amazing people. Would love to meet them some day.
 
Cool! Hangin' with old guys with cool stories is what got me into motorsports, great opportunity you had.... :)
 
As a kid growing up I watched drag racing all the time and built the Revell models of his Swamp Rat, Jungle Jim Lieberman's funny car and others. To see them 40+ years later in real life (he has the Jungle Jim car there) was surreal. He has Shirley Muldowneys Top Fuel car from her very last run ever (he said the museum actually bought it before her last pass), a 50+ collection of her helmets, Daryl Aldermans FC, Multiple Connie Kallita cars, The Greek's car and so many others. Tons of old newspaper articles and drag racing memorabilia.

In the other building are probably 30 different engines of anything from TF motors to 60 hp flathead and anything in between. There is a whole wall of different flathead intakes, Allison aircraft engines, jet dragster, rocket dragster and any type of antique car you can imagine. His Mopar roots are evident, there were more hemis laying around there than you could shake a stick at. Also got to see a Boss 429 and 427 SOHC.

Definitely plan on going back, could probably spend the whole day there just reading the info plaques on all the displays.
 
giles45shop said:
As a kid growing up I watched drag racing all the time and built the Revell models of his Swamp Rat, Jungle Jim Lieberman's funny car and others. To see them 40+ years later in real life (he has the Jungle Jim car there) was surreal. He has Shirley Muldowneys Top Fuel car from her very last run ever (he said the museum actually bought it before her last pass), a 50+ collection of her helmets, Daryl Aldermans FC, Multiple Connie Kallita cars, The Greek's car and so many others. Tons of old newspaper articles and drag racing memorabilia.

In the other building are probably 30 different engines of anything from TF motors to 60 hp flathead and anything in between. There is a whole wall of different flathead intakes, Allison aircraft engines, jet dragster, rocket dragster and any type of antique car you can imagine. His Mopar roots are evident, there were more hemis laying around there than you could shake a stick at. Also got to see a Boss 429 and 427 SOHC.

Definitely plan on going back, could probably spend the whole day there just reading the info plaques on all the displays.
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jungle jim. Have not heard that name in forever. I think i still have my posters from there back in my parents basement. Saw shirley muldowney, don the snake prrudome in the army car Gene the "snowman" in his dodge. The little red wagon wheelie truck, Chuck wagon and some of the first rocket cars. Would go with my family 3-4 times a summer and then the big swap meet in the fall. That place was awesome. Sad that a bunch of douchers moved in next to it then started complaining about the noise.
 
Don Garlits is a hell of a guy. Same with John Force. Eddie Hill is decent enough, Shirley Muldowney is cool as is Ed McCulloch and Tom McEwen. Kenney Bernstein is an epic ****, fuck that guy.


Cool that you got to hang out with such a legend.
 
Funny story from the 80s. Big Daddy calls Steve Maksymyk, a machine shop owner in Fort Walton Beach FL, offering him a job on his pit crew. Steve thinks he's being pranked, calls bullshit, and hangs up on him. Garlits calls back and convinces him it's the real deal.
 
DWT said:
Don Garlits is a hell of a guy. Same with John Force. Eddie Hill is decent enough, Shirley Muldowney is cool as is Ed McCulloch and Tom McEwen. Kenney Bernstein is an epic ****, fuck that guy.


Cool that you got to hang out with such a legend.
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Used to see Force around town all the time, he was just as animated as you see on TV.
 
It was amazing how good his memory was. I went to school in Gainesville from 81-87 and was at the Gatornationals almost every year. I vaguely remembered he set some kind of mph record one year there and mentioned that to him. He immediately responded with the year, the mph, etc and then walked over to the car that he did it in.:smokin: It was the car that someone mentioned above with the belts on the front wheels that kept coming off since they didn't make regular tires that would hold up to those speeds.
 
Biddy Windward built some of his engine’s back in the day. “Brief Encounter” and that chain drive abortion just sit in the trailers now.
 
Very cool. He and Richard Petty are my favorite racing legends.
I've met Gene Snow and Frank Bradley. Talked crazy engine tech with Bradley.
I'm happy for you and a little envious.
 
giles45shop said:
As a kid growing up I watched drag racing all the time and built the Revell models of his Swamp Rat, Jungle Jim Lieberman's funny car and others. To see them 40+ years later in real life (he has the Jungle Jim car there) was surreal. He has Shirley Muldowneys Top Fuel car from her very last run ever (he said the museum actually bought it before her last pass), a 50+ collection of her helmets, Daryl Aldermans FC, Multiple Connie Kallita cars, The Greek's car and so many others. Tons of old newspaper articles and drag racing memorabilia.

In the other building are probably 30 different engines of anything from TF motors to 60 hp flathead and anything in between. There is a whole wall of different flathead intakes, Allison aircraft engines, jet dragster, rocket dragster and any type of antique car you can imagine. His Mopar roots are evident, there were more hemis laying around there than you could shake a stick at. Also got to see a Boss 429 and 427 SOHC.

Definitely plan on going back, could probably spend the whole day there just reading the info plaques on all the displays.
Click to expand...
He had one car that was completly stock with less than 1,000 miles on IIRC, Dr and his wife had ordered it, she died either right after it arrived or just before. So the Dr backed into the shed jacked it up to keep the tires off the ground, and once a month he would go out start it and let it run in gear till it came up to operating temp, shut it off cover it up again and shut the door. :bawling:
 
After watching John Force burn his hand on Cletus McFarland's turbo and his reaction to doing that confirmed that John is a stand-up guy
 
Seen him in early 2016 while visiting his museum. I help a buddy build some temperature measurements towers for NOAA to stick in the Atlantic off of Miami. I went down to deliver them to an island off of Miami snd on my way back up made a point to stop at his place. I’ve been all over Florida on trips and mostly diving trips and never went through that area.

We were lucky as he showed up close to when we were almost ready to leave and we’re able to talk with him for a while. I’m amazed that he has kept so much of his history through his career.
 

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When I was a kid I got to visit the museum. Place was insanely cool. We we're walking around looking at everything, he comes up, and asks if I wanted to sit in the car I was looking at (one of the swamp rats). I said "Dad said no touching the cars", he laughed, and my Dad said "they're his cars, so if he asks if you want to sit in it you sit in it". We spent like an hour BSing and hearing about the cars/racing. I don't remember a lot of it, but I'll never forget that part.
 
Summer of 77 , Clay City, Ky saw BD race. Bought a set of slicks from him.
 
Ok so how did he get the nickname Big Daddy?

And I am a little jelly as well. Big Daddy is a legend for sure..
 
I went through there on a trip home from Disney. Spent almost 2 hours there and could have spent longer. It is an amazing place.
 
Couple years back he had a tent set up at the Kustom Kemps show in Salina ks. When we walked by there was a line about 20 deep for shirts and autographs, I didn't want to stand in the heat and wait. Probably should have. Watched him race swamp rat 30(?), the fully enclosed car at Heartland when I was in highschool......35 years ago.

On another note, a very cool museum for any gearhead to visit is the Speedway motors museum in Lincoln Ne. Very very cool way to spend a day.
 
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