Don Garlits to Race at $2000 Challenge

John Welsh said:

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

I have imagined some cool photo-ops... 

How about a frame with two pictures.  In pic #1 it is two cars at the christmas tree.  Big Daddy stand at his headlight with a hand on the hood.  Calvin stands at his headlight with his hand on his hood and Andrew stands behind Calvin with his hand on Calvin's shoulder.  Logo'ing for Gator Nationals is is the background.    

Pic #2 is an action shot with both cars just past the christmas tree.  In my dream version of the photo, Calvin's car is just slightly ahead of Big Daddy's because Calvin got the jump on him with a better reaction time!  

Mounted then in the frame is the time slip which is signed by Big Daddy.   

 

I'd love to see Calvin wheels up just a little bit. Little ol gapperoni between the fronts and the pavement. 

If Don points to you car and says "that would go faster if..." you should listen. 

Honestly just want to get my picture with him, when i was an impressionable teen i was home watching drag racing on espn2 when he was the pit commentator while everyone else was out chasing girls.  

I didn't realize I was such a celebrity. We couldn't do it without help. Lol. I'm down. Not too many people can say they raced Don Garlits. We should have something for him.

Dusterbd13-michael said:

Patrick said:

In reply to bigben :

I predict a v6 miata

Nah. Datsaniti. Mines slow.

It's gonna be your car, just not the green one...

One more plug for the museum.  And if you go out the back way, you drive past his house.  Yes, he lives on the grounds.  Not uncommon to find him in the musuem or in "Daddy's Garage."  Sure, he wants you to shell out a few bucks for an autograph, but listening to the stories and experiencing the aura are free.

Dang, I was thinking of going to the challenge next year but I may have to come this year.  The Zamboni gets grandfathered in since it was already a Challenge car, right?

Can anyone teach me the secrets of nitrous?   

Any idea what time he is going to run? I'm bringing kids of varying ages to parts of the day and this is a part I want to make sure they see.

Here's the schedule: https://2000challenge.com/schedule

In reply to Tom Suddard :

Thank you. 7 PM it is!

For the first time in my life, I'm sad about the geographic gap between Michigan and Florida.  

Bumping this back up for those of you who weren't there...

HOW 'BOUT THEM NELSONS?!

I was super impressed to see the sunbird strip times.  Also extremely curious what happened to get a Volvo down the strip that fast.

84FSP said:

I was super impressed to see the sunbird strip times.  Also extremely curious what happened to get a Volvo down the strip that fast.

Westside...............Westside happened!

In reply to 84FSP :

Matt cranked the manual boost controller 4.5 turns while i was talking to him at some point. 

The thing that gets me the most about the nelsons- well two things. How humble they all are. Some of the most gentle people ever. I was not prepared for that. 

Thing #2- how efficient those cars are.  I saw the Nagasaki noisy boy on Andy's car and knew E36 M3 was gonna be real. The thing I did not anticipate was how anticlimactic they make a 9 second quarter mile look. 9.84 is extremely fast, and that sunbird looks like my Corolla taking off, only at warp speed.