"The Garlits Collection; Cars that Made Drag Racing History"
By Mike Mueller (192 pages; Car Tech books, 2004)

This month’s "Between the Covers" will focus on the hard cover coffee-table book entitled "The Garlits Collection."

This book features 192 glossy pages filled with black and white as well as color photos. The book features 18 chapters, with each one dedicated to a specific car. In those chapters are some really neat sidebar stories that add good insight into cars like Ed Roth’s "The Fang" and others.

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Five of the chapters are about cars that Don Garlits drove throughout his long and illustrious career. The remaining 13 chapters look at everything from Dick Craft’s "Bug" (the car that many have called the first ever "dragster") to Shirley Muldowney’s 1980 Top Fuel Car, with a smattering of funnies and door cars in the middle and afterward.

For those of you who think that this book is merely a photographical walk around Garlits’ Ocala, Florida, drag racing museum, you’re mistaken. Each vehicle is profiled in very deep detail and includes information that even the most grizzled "I know everything" fan would be hard pressed to know. If you have never been to the Garlits museum, this book would be a good way to gain some sense of the racing and automotive history that is parked there in Ocala. On the other hand, if you have been to the shrine, there are plenty of reasons to purchase this book.

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There are a couple of things that we were able to take umbrage with. The first was the chapter dedicated to the 1962 Max Wedge Dodge that Pat Garlits ran (and won in) several times during 1962. It was a car that Don never really had any interest in. The chapter provides a lot of info about the "Super Stock Dodge" but it does not break any new ground. We would have been more interested in a chapter detailing Don’s foray into the funny car craze with his controversial Dart Roadster that went 200 mph and was then banned by the NHRA, but that’s just us.

Overall, this is a solid book. It’s not cheap but it will be a good addition to the collection of any real fan of drag racing history. We have found it for 39.99 at local bookstores, so it isn’t exactly a bargain. If you are never going to get to the drag racing museum in Ocala, this will be a good taste for you. If you are headed there, pick this one up for some advanced research so you can really impress your buddies, or put your wife to sleep!

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Between the covers buy rating: Strong