"Big Daddy" Don Garlits Fires Up Swamp Rat 12!

"Big Daddy" Don Garlits attended the 2023 Fall Rod Run, Cruise the Smokies car show in Cherokee, North Carolina in October. While there he told us a story about the car and fired it up for the crowd! 1,000HP on regular gasoline and 3,000HP on NitroMethane!!
After talking with the legend and seeing the presentation, it's hard to believe he's 91 Year Old, but it's easy to see why he's a living legend and hero to a lot of fans!
#dongarlits #nhradragracing #nhra #nitro #rodrun

[@TheInvisibleRedneck]

Can you believe "Big Daddy" Don Garlits is 91 years old in this video? Going fast keeps you young if it dont kill you!

[@LozsLeisure]

Didn't realise how long a break you had before this year! That sound is unreal, can see the need for the ear protection 😂 Great to have you back and so close to breaking a million views on the channel too. Nice!

[@TheInvisibleRedneck]

Yeah, it was. 😂. Just took a week off, then another, then another, before I knew it 6 years had slipped by! Yea, those things are insanely loud and thats not even one of the big guys. This one has 3,000HP, the big ones have around 10,000! They fire them up in the pits while they're working on them. If you don't know it's starting, it'll scare the crap out of you. No joke Loz, it sounds like a huge bomb going off. One of the loudest things you'll ever hear. If you get to my area in the states, yell at me, I'll take yall to the drag races here in our "Bristol" aka Thunder Valley!

[@LozsLeisure]

@@TheInvisibleRedneck easily done 😂😂😂 that genuinely is no joke! Sounds like your Bristol could be more fun than ours 🤣

[@TheInvisibleRedneck]

@@LozsLeisure I dont know about bristol itself, but east tennessee, gatlinburg, townsend, cherokee, smoky mountains may be(all sit next to each other, just a few minutes apart, but bristol is about 90mins from here). NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals Fri, Jun 7, 2024

[@TheInvisibleRedneck]

Also, not sure what you'd like better. . . the drag races at Bristol or an American Football game at Neyland Stadium (Tennessee Volunteers) in the fall, probably the football, but its much more expensive. Either way, may be some good things to search/watch on youtube when you get bored. Search/watch Tennessee vs Alabama 2022 to see one of the best football games ever played! Its known as the "Dixieland Delight" game. . . Tenn & Alabama are huge rivals for a hundred years. Bama always plays a song called "Dixieland Delight" after their wins. It's a song about Tennessee. . . last year Tennessee won an insane game and played the song at the end to kinda rub it in their face a little. (Historically Tennessee and Alabama are top teams in the country (this year they are ranked #15 & #11). This year's game is played tomorrow. . . at Alabama! Should be a good game to watch, if you can find a stream. . . vipleague . im should have a stream playing. It's Saturday at 3.30pm Eastern standard time. Not sure what time that would be for yall.

[@MrScottmoad]

I visited his Drag Racing Museum in Ocala Florida when my mom was sick and in the Hospital down there.

[@TheInvisibleRedneck]

I'd love to see it. To be honest, I didn't know he had one. I also has zero idea he is 91yo. I just assumed he was 60 something. I remember him from the 80's when I was a kid. I just assumed he was around 30yo at the time, when he was actually 60ish and retiring!

[@jackmigge1624]

Saw him break into 8 second et's at Half Moon Bay Drag Strip!

[@TheInvisibleRedneck]

What year was that?

[@jackmigge1624]

@@TheInvisibleRedneck 59 or 60?

[@TheInvisibleRedneck]

@@jackmigge1624 I think the first time I saw him was at Thunder Valley in the 80's. He had a long career. . . said he didn't retire from Chrysler until he was nearly 90!

[@pawleymediaconsultantsllc5]

OMG $50 a gallon !! Don't they start it on one type of fuel and then switch over to the nitro ?

[@TheInvisibleRedneck]

Yeah, they started them on regular gas and switch to nitromethane. I wonder how much nitro he burned through just idling that thing for a minute?

[@pawleymediaconsultantsllc5]

@@TheInvisibleRedneck Probably a 1/2 a gallon :) I read somewhere they the had to manually turn the engines over prior to starting because with the residual nitromethane the engines might explode !!

[@TheInvisibleRedneck]

@@pawleymediaconsultantsllc5 I think that's what he was doing with the crank at the beginning of the video. I remember hearing they burn a ton of fuel on a single pass, but can't remember the exact amount. I do remember being shocked by it. It was a ridiculous amount for just a few seconds. It would be hard to burn that amount in a few seconds if you dumped it into a tub and just lit it. Crazy what they get those engines to do!

[@waynewilliams8554]

@@TheInvisibleRedneck Currently they're burning around 12 gallons @ 1.000 ft. in the high 3 second runs!!

[@TheInvisibleRedneck]

@@waynewilliams8554 absolute madness! I love it! 😂

[@danielrhodes4477]

The guy is legend, so much innovation in the sport

[@TheInvisibleRedneck]

It's pretty wild. All the work in the garage and in the pits on the cars, all the work promoting his team and the race events, week after week after week for a pass a few seconds long down a straight track a few times in a weekend in front of the crowd at insane speeds, harnessing crippling power and risking your life every single time. All while constantly innovating and advancing the sport just to go a few thousandths of a second faster on the next run. . . a lot of highs and lows. That's not normal and definitely legendary. I bet it takes a lot to get his adrenaline up!

[@kenneymitchell1186]

Long live the king, king big daddy, the one and only, no one will ever get close. He the Ben Franklin of speed.

[@TheInvisibleRedneck]

I knew he was great, I didn't realize how big of a legend he is until filming this. No one means more too drag racing than Big Daddy Don Garlits!

[@waynewilliams8554]

Don could draw a crowd on the Sahara Desert. He is the best!!

[@TheInvisibleRedneck]

Absolutely a legend!

[@crimesforgottenbytime]

Amazing, I have never seen anything like that. I love any kind of restoration. That is beautiful. Again, you are always going to see amazing things.

[@TheInvisibleRedneck]

Thanks! Don Garlits is a true living legend. Hard to believe he's 91, looks like he's 60.

[@crimesforgottenbytime]

@@TheInvisibleRedneck Oh wow!! He does look 60.

[@onlineconsumer4796]

I watched Don break 200 in an unofficial run at Masters field in Miami before the official run.

[@TheInvisibleRedneck]

Absolutely a legend!

[@jayeconstant5723]

I saw Big run his streamliner dragster in Lakeland Fl 1971

[@TheInvisibleRedneck]

I'm a rookie when it comes to Don Garlits. I watched him as a kid in the 80's and always heard about him, but it never hit me that he's been doing this for so long. I just kinda thought he was in this 20's or 30s back in the 80s, but he was a little older and already an absolute legend!