Don Garlits Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

Don Garlits, born Donald Glenn Garlits in 1932, won over 144 national events and was a ten-time AHRA World Champion and five-time IHRA Champion. Over his career, he broke a number of speed records, including the first over 170 m.p.h. (1957) and first over 250 m.p.h. (1975), and he was the first to break 270 m.p.h. with his IHRA record-setting 271.08. Garlits, who had revolutionized the sport by designing and building the first successful rear-end dragster (1971), was also a pioneer in a number of other innovations, including the first use of bike wheels on the front of a dragster, the first use of a hypoid rear end, the first use of air spoilers and the first use of frontal ground effects. His drag racer was the first such vehicle to be enshrined in the Smithsonian Institution, and Garlits himself was later enshrined in the International Motorsports Hall of Fame (1997). Garlits also made a unsuccessful run for Florida's 5th Congressional District seat in 1994.