"I like my Dodge Challenger Drag Pak much better than a dragster," continued Garlits, referring to the current way Top Fuel dragsters are campaigned. "It takes 25 people to get a dragster to the line these days. All I have to do with the Dodge Challenger is turn the key and take it there. When the light turns green I have a 10-second ride —which is almost three times what I used to get — and I even have time to look at the tach and shift gears. The other thing I like about it is that I get a lot of seat time on every pass.”

Garlits is going to debut the car as an NHRA A/SA car at the U.S. Nationals and will try to qualify for the field. The current index for A/SA is 11.30. Judging what it takes to qualify for the U.S. Nationals in the Stock Eliminator division, Garlits should qualify but probably not in the top half of the field if his new Mopar runs in the 10.40 range at Indy.

And we’ll bet the idea of sandbagging --“ripping” the throttle and allowing the driver in the other lane to “take the stripe”  which is so prevalent in  Stock Eliminator and bracket racing -- is something that Garlits may never understand or do. The “Old Man” has always raced with the right pedal on the mat ‘till he crossed the stripe, God bless him, and he isn’t likely to change at this phase of his career as a driver.

Former Mopar engineer John Donato was the lead designer of the Challenger Drag Pak car and designed and built it at the Mopar Canadian plant where the first 50 factory Drag Pak cars were supposed to be built. He is also tuning the car that Garlits is driving although he is no longer employed by the new Chrysler company. Here he checks the fuel injection and timing curve for the EFI injected 6.1 liter Hemi.

The wheelbase on Garlits Challenger is 115.5 inches, which is half an inch shorter than factory stock. The rear wheels have been moved forward a half-inch to get the weight more evenly balanced between the front and rear of the car, Donato said. The whole rear-end assembly on Drag Pak cars are moved 2.5 inches further forward than they come in stock form.