quote: In 1971, Don Garlits was destroying the competition with his new rear-engined Swamp Rat
I got to see Don break the 200mph 1/4m at Oswego Dragway, an IHRA track west of Chicago, the week before he did it officially at US30.
Posted by 2002Z4CSS (Member # 1393) on :
And imagine that today these top fuel dragsters go 4.40's at over 330 mph! A lot of technology must have made that happen.Must have been great back then to watch Don Garlits racing. Posted by Old Coyote (Member # 1343) on :
That's really cool .................. Garlits' Swamp Rat 1-R was a milestone in the sport .............. the "grandfather" of all the rear engined cars of today
Don't misunderstand me, there were many attempts at rear engined cars before Garlits .............. but most handled like witches and none were really successful
After having half his foot sawed off in that disasterous clutch explosion, he had lots of time to design while he was healing .............. and he accidentally hit on the answer to the problem that had plagued all the other rear engined cars ............... you couldn't use a posi rear end in the back motor configuration ................ he didn't .............. and the car ran like a striped ape ............ straight as an arrow ............. and the front engined "slingshot" went the way of the dinosaur
[ 11. November 2003, 09:30 AM: Message edited by: Old Coyote ]
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