Swamp Rat 14 Great article from Phil Burgess (1 Viewer)

[Cliff]

Swamp Rat 14 rides again; the history of one of Top Fuel's most important cars

Steve Torrence won the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals in a Don Garlits tribute car modeled after Garlits' famed Swamp Rat 14, one of the most important cars in Top Fuel history. Here's the story behind the success of Garlits' original SR14.

www.nhra.com

I saw this car make it's debut at Lions. It had the shorty body & side mounted fuel tank & most important, it ran straight as a string. Saw Garlits win Pomona with it, This is also the car that ran 6.21 at Indy that year & stunned everyone. Man, this car really did turn Top Fuel around to what it is today.

 

[sammi]

Wouldn't Garlits be a great "responsible adult" on the NHRA board of directors. Someone who has:
1.built several top fuelers with his own hands
2.driven what he has built
3.survived crashes and helped develop safety measures
4.learned how to make money racing a top fuel dragster
5.has amazing vision and has an uncanny ability to hit homeruns(museum,rear engine dragster)
6.Has driven a pickup truck towing a trailer dozens of times cross country to race(humility and ability to understand the little guy racer)
7.His view that racers should be paid better
8.His uncanny ability to try, fail, try, fail, try, get it right and be successful.
9.his comfort in being accessible to anyone

 

[4onthefl4]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I saw/read somewhere that the testing, or at least some, was done at Orlando Speed World and that's where he figured out the steering issue.
I'm pretty sure I was there at one of those test sessions. I saw Big race so many times, it's hard to remember where and when all the times I saw him race.
Mr Burgess is more of an expert than I am, but I'm going to look around and see if I can find that information.

 

[Mike]

yes, he ran many tests and actually started to build another front motor car because he could not get the car to run straight till his wife Pat stepped in, If I remember he talked to Pat Foster who told him to slow down the steering ratio and that turned out to be the problem.

 

[Tony]

yes, he ran many tests and actually started to build another front motor car because he could not get the car to run straight till his wife Pat stepped in, If I remember he talked to Pat Foster who told him to slow down the steering ratio and that turned out to be the problem.

I encourage everyone to read Don Garlits and his Cars. It was written by Big Daddy, he explains details of all of his cars, and is written in his own vocabulary and style.